We All Live In A Pokémon World
by 4428gamer
Summary: Awoken by a Gastly to the face, A fourteen year old Alex finds himself awake on the roof of a building. And now having no idea as to what to do, he needs to figure out a plan in this new world. Rated teen. Not because of cursing or any questionable themes, but just to be sure. Max enters in chapter three onward.
1. Daredevil Heights

**Professor Sycamore's POV**

"Ah, good morning Charmander! And how are we feeling today?" I asked as I entered the room. Charmander was feeling a bit down ever since Ivysaur had evolved and left him as the only one of the three in their pre-evolved forms.

"Char..." He said, uninterested in conversation. He was just siting around with his bowl of Pokémon food left hardly touched.

"Aw, don't worry. Just because they've already evolved doesn't mean that they're any better. You're just a late-bloomer is all." I said in attempt to cheer him up.

"Mander..." He got up and slowly trudged out of the room.

I took a step forward. "That-uh...N-Not that being a late-bloomer is a bad thing! It's just. That...Oh..." _Alright, maybe I need some help with this..._

"Char?..." As Charmander approached the window, he got a look of confusion as he looked towards the street below.

"Hm? What's wrong?" Charmander kept his focus towards the front of the building as he simply signaled me with his claw to join him at the window.

Curious as to what snapped Charmander out of thought so quickly, I walked over and looked out the window only to see a small crowd of people below and Officer Jenny talking with a megaphone in hand and two Machokes standing on either sides of her.

"Sir! Please step away from the ledge! If you get any closer, you may-" Before she could finish, she and the rest of the crowd all gasped in shock.

I opened the window and looked out as Charmander got out of the way. "Officer Jenny, what's going on?"

"Professor! There's a young man on the roof and he slipped on the ledge!" She told me as the Machokes both picked up something I couldn't recognize and ran into the small front courtyard. I assumed that they were setting up something to help with the issue.

"I'll go check it out! You may come in if you need to!" I told her before backing away from the window and looking to Charmander. "Come! I think I'll need your help."

"Char, Char-mander!" He said, determined to help.

We both turned and ran towards the door as one of the other scientists opened it. "Professor Sycamore, there's a crowd of people out-WAH!"

He jumped out of the way as me and Charmander sped past him with no intent of stopping. Luckily he was alright as I had no time to do anything then yell back a quick apology.

From my study the two of us made a sharp right towards a door that led to the emergency staircase. Charmander beat me to the door however and with his rash nature he just tackled the door and knocked it off it's hinges. Taking it down for good before he went for the staircase.

_I'll have to remind him that it's a simple push door later._

I followed suit through the now empty doorway as I ran up the flights of stairs with Charmander now an entire set of stairs ahead of me. And as he got up to the roof's doorway, I heard him destroy that door as well.

As I finally came upon the door that wasn't just knocked out of place, but shattered to wooden bits. Still, this only earned my attention for a few seconds as I looked ahead to see a wild Gastly floating around the side of the side of the roof, looking a bit satisfied with itself.

"What is that thing?!" A young man's voice yelled out for dear life.

The young man!

"Hang on, I'll be right there!"

"Very funny!" He retorted. _Okay, so maybe that was a bad choice of words. Wow, I'm having terrible luck with talking to others today..._

Charmander glared at the Gastly before charging at it.

"Wait! Charmander!" But it was too late as he tried to use rage against it. And as a result, he just phased through the Gastly and fell flat to the ground. Bumping his nose against the ground.

The Gastly turned towards him and started laughing before he realized my presence on the roof. His humorous smile then frowned in fear as he saw me pull out Garchomp's Pokéball.

So, without having to even bring out Garchomp, Gastly floated away and disappeared through a neighboring building's wall.

I sighed in relief whereas Charmander got up and started yelling in the direction Gastly had fled. But ignoring that for now, I ran over towards the ledge and saw the young man struggling to keep a grip on the ledge.

"Alright, the Gastly's gone!" I told him as I got down and grabbed a hold of his right arm to help pull him up. "Grab hold!"

He looked towards his left arm and very hesitantly let go and quickly grabbed a hold of my arm in desperate attempt to get back up.

Sadly I had realized very quickly that I was, just barely, not strong enough to pull him up. "Okay, slight problem..."

"Slight?! I'm hangin' off the edge of the roof here!" The boy said, not taking this situation well enough to calm down.

"Hold on, I'll be right over!" A female voice announced as she ran over towards us. Looking off to the side for a split-second I recognized Officer Jenny as she grabbed a hold of the boy's other hand and helped me pull him up.

He tried to pull one of his legs up above the side and once doing so successfully, it was no problem at all to save him.

The audience below broke out in cheering and applause as the boy tried to catch his breath from all the surprise that he had just experienced.

"What has gotten into you?!" Jenny began to scold as she glared at the boy. "You have so much life ahead of you, why would you risk it with a dangerous stunt like that?!"

"Do you think I want to be up here before the sun's even up for the day?!" He asked in complete disbelief. Also, the sun was already up, but since it was only eight in the morning I don't think he meant that literally.

It was then that I noticed that he was in sleepwear instead of normal everyday clothes. A pair of sweatpants, a grey T-shirt, and no shoes. No socks either. It was as if he had just gotten out of bed.

"Look, lady, I don't where I am or what happened okay? All I can tell you is that I woke up with that black and purple..._Smoke-thing_ in my face! It wouldn't go away, I couldn't knock it knock it away, and it eventually trapped me against the side of this roof! And since there wasn't a rail or anything, I tripped and was hanging on for dear life."

"Hm..." Officer Jenny put a finger to her chin as she pondered his words before eventually turning to me. "Professor, can you confirm any of this?"

"Yes. As me and Charmander came up, we spotted the Gastly bothering him." I told her with a nod.

"Well that does match up with the recent reports we've been getting lately. A Gastly that's been coming and disturbing males whenever asleep..." She said, going over that recent rumor. A rumor that's been going on ever since the rumor of a ghostly human-figure in one of the office buildings was brought to attention once again.

"Still, that doesn't explain what you're doing up here." Jenny said, bringing focus back on the boy. "I'm glad that this wasn't anything like a suicide attempt, but how do you think your family's going to respond when I tell them that you snuck into Professor Sycamore's Lab?!"

"W-What?!" He suddenly turned very pale as he held up his hands in defense from the Officer's glare. "I-I didn't-"

"It's alright miss, the young lad's with me." I told her with a happy smile. He said that he had been attacked by that Gastly. And if the story's correct, that means he really was asleep up here. No trespasser or thief in the right mind would ever sneak into the lab just to sleep on the cold concrete of the roof.

"Huh?!" He turned to me as I quickly flashed him a hopeful grin. "Y-Yeah, I had been staying at his lab...To help him out with his recent discovery!" He lied. Very well I may add.

"My name's Alex." He said, suddenly standing at attention. "And sorry if I acted a bit too angry at you. I did just wake up a while ago after all..." He said with a bit of guilt in his voice.

"Well, I suppose I owe you an apology as well for accusing you of sneaking into his lab. I guess I'm still on edge from the events of that Garchomp incident from a few days ago." She said with a sigh.

"Well now that we're all safe, I'd say we better get off the roof before we freeze. Especially you Alex. After all, you have a lot of work to do today." I told him with a smile.

"Right..." He said with a frown, acting disappointed to help go along with the little lie I had created.

_Now that I think about it, if he tries to keep up with this lie then I may just have to present that 'recent discovery' he mentioned to everyone...Gulp..._

"I guess I'll get going then. Glad to see everyone's okay." Jenny then turned to me with a small frown. "And Professor, I think you may want to take his advice into consideration. With no railing, someone else could easily trip and fall off the edge."

"Not a very fun thing to experience, I'll tell ya that much..." Alex said, glancing back at the edge.

"Oh. R-Right..." _Alright, I get the hint. Railings. Not too much to ask of me I suppose..._

* * *

**Just a quick note I want to add here, this is going to be one of the few chapters that follow a character's POV other than Alex's. Still, it won't all be focused on just Alex alone. Other familiar characters will be joining soon.**

**That being said, I'll leave off on this note and be sure to upload the next chapter whenever I can! Goodbye for now everyone!**

**(Also to mention now, I tend to always leave a QotC, Question of the Chapter, at the end of every chapter I make. So that being said, the QotC's directly under this side note. Some will have to do with whatever happened in the particular chapter, others are just random. Enjoy!)**

**QotC: What happens to be your favorite Pokémon?**


	2. Your Garchomp and You

**/_\**

**Alex's POV**

* * *

After the cop had said her goodbyes, the Professor helped me inside. Sadly, because the adrenaline rush of being chased around- _What was that thing called again, a Gastly?_- had faded away, I was left to realize that because of being up on that freezing cold roof, I was suffering the consequences.

So upon seeing me shivering from the weather, the Professor offered me a seat inside his study next to the fireplace with a blanket to help warm up.

As I sat there and tried to figure out just what the heck was going on, I heard the door open as one of the Professor's assistant's walked in. I could tell that it was an assistant from the lab coat and what looked like a

"Professor Sycamore said that this may help." She told me as she handed me a mug of hot chocolate. "I'm Sofi. And as soon as you're ready, me and Garchomp will help you get home. May I ask your full name?"

"Thank you." I accepted the mug and seeing as how it was cooled, I took a sip. _Extra creamer. Not bad._ "My name's Alex Fletcher, and...Wait, Garchomp?" I looked at her in confusion. "Is...Is that some kind of nickname or something?"

"Huh?" She raised an eyebrow. "No?..."

"Well that's some name for a scientist." I said as I put the mug down and got up. Putting the blanket around myself like a poncho to help keep warming up. "I mean I'm sorry, but what kind of parents name their kid Garchomp?" And almost as if I said the magic word, I began to hear heavy stomping from outside the hallway.

But the Assistant, Sofi, just started giggling at what I had said. "Oh, no, no, no. I think you misunderstand. Garchomp's not a Scientist. Garchomp is one of Professor Sycamore's Pokémon. In fact, he's right here."

At that moment, someone had come right outside the door. It was a little dark with the hallway not being all that well lit, but I could just make out what he looked like. He was a tall guy that looked pretty big as well. He also had on what looked like odd looking earphones or something because there were two odd shapes on both sides of his head.

_Well he definitely breaks the nerdy scientist stereotype..._

Sofi stepped aside to give Garchomp some room to walk in. And the second he walked in, I soon spotted that he wasn't a human at all. And because of this, I reacted the following way:

"AH!" I yelled out, stepping backwards and tripping over the edge of the carpet in the process. Falling to the floor and getting tangled up in my blanket poncho as a consolation. "W-What is that thing?!" I asked with complete and total fear. _It's even more threatening than the smiling gas ball!_

"I-It's Garchomp. I told you he was a Pokémon." She said, suddenly worried about my reaction. "I'm sorry, are you afraid of Dragon-Types?!"

"Wha- Dragon-Types?! Is that what this giant monster is?!" I asked, looking towards her for only a few seconds before glancing back at the giant Freak-O-Nature that was taking a step towards me. This made me flail around in the blanket some more until I got free and jumped up to my feet. Walking back very slowly to get some distance between me and Purple-Scales.

"Oh! Uh-I-I mean, not giant monster!" I stuttered as I saw him keep coming closer. "What's your name-Garchomp, right?! You know, I'm not sure if you know this but I am _not_ a tasty human to eat! Trust me, I may not look to unhealthy, but I'm a lot chubbier than I seem!" Despite what I said,Garchomp was still approaching me with that terrifying face.

"Uh...Oh! Also, it's probably not a good idea to eat me! I mean, I just came outside from sleeping in the cold morning air! I might have pneumonia or something! You don't wanna get sick from eating something like me, ri-AH!" I yelled out as he suddenly picked me up from the ground. Holding me four feet off the ground with ease.

"Alright, fine, eat me! Just make sure not to kill me painfully, okay?!" I begged pitifully before realizing that he was already putting me back down. "...Uh...Thank you?..."

"Don't worry Alex, Garchomp's not going to hurt you." Sofi said with a small smile. "In fact, he's even calmer than most Garchomps are to begin with. He was just stopping you from tripping into the fireplace." She then pointed out the spot Garchomp had picked me up from. Revealing that I was definitely going to be a meal for sure if he didn't save me.

"Oops...Uh. Sorry about that, Garchomp..." I said awkwardly, not sure how to really apologize to a six foot fire-breathing land shark. Regardless of that though, Garchomp simply nodded at me and started to walk towards the door.

_...Wait a second, I need an instant replay. Did that thing really just nod at me?..._

"Anyway, let's hurry. You're parents must be worried sick." Sofi told me with a nod as she waited for me at the doorway.

"Uh-right." I got up and put the blanket back on, followed by picking the mug back up. No way was I gonna waste a good cup of hot chocolate. "So where is this lab place anyway?"

"It's at the south-west area of Lumiose City. So where do you live?" She asked as we left the room and followed behind Garchomp. With me behind Sofi to help keep my distance.

"San Marcos." I said calmly as I looked around. We had gone through a hallway before coming out to what I could only assume was the lobby of this lab. It was pretty big and the architecture was very impressive. That is, the architecture that was still standing.

Corners of the lobby had pieces of the wall and floor swept up to keep everything out of the way and the floor had wooden panels over certain parts. Upon closer inspection, the reason was because of how the floor had a crater that went around like a river. Same with the walls.

_If I had to guess what did this, I'd put my money on Torpedo Scales. She said Garchomp was calmer than 'other' Garchomps. If this is calm, I don't want to see what a Garchomp would do if agitated._

"I've never heard that city...Is it in another region?" She turned towards me with a slightly confused and curious look.

"Another. Region?... Just how far away is Lumiose City?" I asked, suddenly getting worried. I knew that I wasn't in San Marcos anymore, but I never heard of 'Lumiose City' before. That's not good news.

"Uh...Well, it's the center and capital of the Kalos Region." She answered with a bit of worry. "Are you not from the Kalos Region?"

"Definitely not. And I know that I was never in any place called Kalos. I was at home, sleeping in my bed and the next thing I know is _poof_. I winded up on a roof."

"Well that's not very good at-Wait, what?!" She asked, suddenly having a eureka moment. "Not at Kalos at all?! How is that possible?!"

"How should I know?! Aren't you guys the scientists?!" I frowned at her. "Are you telling me that you guys don't even know?!"

"Well, no! We're researching Pokémon Mega-Evolution, not unexplained, overnight traveling! Do you have some kind of Psychic-Type Pokémon at your house?"

"Lady, I have two pet dogs! I'm pretty sure that neither of them can perform magic tricks!" _Let alone _any_ tricks. It's surprising enough that they learned to sit._

"Gar-Garchomp!" The dragon suddenly, and scaring-ly, interrupted as we approached some glass double doors. And behind them looked to be an inside bio-dome or something complete with trees and a small stream. Inside stood the Professor from earlier talking to some kind of red and white bird that was perched upon his finger.

"Good idea Garchomp! The Professor might be able to give an explanation!" She said before charging out to the bio-dome room. _Wait, but she just said that they didn't research this kind of stuff. Whether lead Professor or not, how's this dude gonna explain anything better?_

"Alex?" The Professor questioned as he saw the three of us come through. "I see that you're feeling better. What brings you to this part of the lab?"

"Professor Sycamore, I think we may have a problem!" Sofi cut in. "Alex claims that he's never set foot in the Kalos Region at all!"

"What?" He let the bird on his finger fly off as he gave us our full attention. "Is this true Alex?"

"Uh, yeah. Like I told her, I was sleeping back home in San Marcos last I remember. And I know that I've never even heard of this Kalos Region place."

"Hm...Any leads as to what might've caused this?" He looked towards Sofi for answers.

"Not that I can think of. He said that his family doesn't have any Psychic-Types, and there's no way a Bird-Type could've flown him here if he's from outside of Lumiose City." She explained, very worried now.

"Wait, there are birds that big?" I asked worriedly.

"Well, if not physically brought here or teleported here, then how else could he have appeared?" The Professor started walking over towards us.

"No, really, are there actually birds that big?" I repeated. Sadly, this question of mine was left unanswered for probably the rest of all eternity. _Goody gumdrops for me..._

"Well, where did you say you were from again? Samacros?" He tried to recall.

"San Marcos. As in San Marcos, Texas." The city alone probably wasn't going to give anyone any clues. But seeing their even more confused looks, it seemed that the state wasn't much help either. And if that was true, then something tells me that country wouldn't be any help either. Regardless of them speaking the same language.

"Afraid that doesn't ring much of a bell. Which means that you had to have come from a very far off place. Farther than even the strongest of Psychic-Type would be able to teleport you...None of this adds up." He put a finger to his chin in thought as he walked ahead. "Alex, would you mind coming with me? I think I may have to get a second opinion on this issue."

"Uh..." I looked to Sofi and then Garchomp, who was thankfully giving me some space, before shrugging. "Sure, I guess...Why, what's going on?"

* * *

**And that's the second part. I hoped you enjoyed this part as well. The next chapter may be up soon, but after that, it may be a while until the fourth one. I have a few projects going on at the moment. Anyway, here's the QotC!**

**QotC: What's your favorite Professor out of them all?**


	3. Three Wise Professors

**/\**

**\/**

**Alex's POV**

"Now that's quite a story!" The lady on the video-podcast machine said in shock after me and the Professor had finished explaining all that happened this morning. "And, you're sure?"

"Yes. I'm sure that I've never been to Kalos before." _Sheesh, how many times do I need to spell it out for everyone around me? I mean, yeah, these__ two just now found out, but it's getting pretty old already._

After being led to the Professor's laboratory, he sat me down in front of the video phone to let me talk to two other people. One was this girl with a sort of weird looking light brown hairstyle and a light blue-pale lab coat as well.

And on the second screen seeing as how there were three video phones connected to one another, was an older man. He looked pretty normal with white hair and a moustache. He also had a blue vest on and a brown overcoat overtop of that.

"Well then, this is very peculiar." The older man, who's name the Professor I was said was Rowan, acknowledged. "Tell me, did anything weird happen before you were brought to Kalos?"

"Nope. I went to bed and woke up with when some weird thing woke me up. Same clothes, and nothing else different either except for the location." I shrugged. "Not much else to tell."

"Well, what about before then? Had anything odd happened before you fell asleep?" The lady Professor, Juniper I think, asked.

"Uh...I don't think so. I stay up pretty late on weekends and when I go to bed I usually listen to music. So if anything did happen, I missed it."

"...Hold on a moment." Rowan scratched his chin in thought. "Weekend you say?"

"Yeah. Saturday night...Err, well I guess Sunday since I went to bed at around two or so." Both Juniper and Rowan looked at me with straight faces. And while they did this, I got a feeling that the Professor was giving me a similar glance. "Did...Did I say something wrong?"

"That depends," The Professor said from behind me as he took a step towards the screen and me. "Do you usually sleep for four to five days straight?"

"No...Why would you ask me a question like that?" I asked, turning to him to raise an eyebrow.

"Because today's Thursday."

"Wha...Thursday? How's it Thursday?" I know I couldn't have gotten the date wrong, I didn't have school or anything so I stayed up as late as I wanted.

"And when did you say you fell asleep again? At around two in the morning?" Rowan asked me, sounding a bit worried behind the giant face-eating worm of a moustache.

"Uh-huh. Why is that important though?" I asked as the two Professors shared a look through the screen. Or at least, I think they were looking at each other. It was hard to tell through a three-way video chat.

"Professor Juniper, are you currently at the lab right now?" Rowan asked after a few seconds.

"Yes, and I know what you're getting at. I'll get the lab notes." She then got up and left the screen to look for something out of view.

"Professor Rowan, is something going on?" The Professor behind me asked. _Man, with all these Professors I'm starting to feel stupid just by being around them. And here I thought people were supposed to feel smarter around them._

"Well, it seems that a part of his story matches up with a recent discovery. You see, Professor Juniper came to visit me in the Sinnoh region because she had wanted to gather some information on the legendary Pokémon, Arceus. And while during a certain time of which we're all familiar, something out of the ordinary happened." He explained to us. "Alex? Can you tell us anything as to what happened before going to sleep that day? Anything at all? Whether it be a usual occurrence or abnormal?"

"Okay, I guess so..." I decided to close my eyes since they were all going to be focusing on me. That way I could try and remember without six eyes staring at me from all directions.

_Alright. I woke up that morning, did my morning routine, then went downstairs and played...Some video game. Maybe Call of Duty or something, I have like a hundred games, it's hard to tell. Then I got on my laptop and...YouTube maybe? No, Nostalgia Critic...Or was it to play another game?...Whatever, it was early morning how am I supposed to remember that._

_Then lunch was ready and I ate...Alright, now this is getting kind of hard. Uh...Pasta. No, hamburger! No, steak! I...I can't remember. What did I do after that?..._

_..._

_..._

_And, I have no clue._

"I can't remember anything." I told them as I opened my eyes and shrugged a little. I knew what YouTube, and Call of Duty, and my family, so I didn't forget any object or person. Just that particular day I couldn't remember much of.

"Nothing at all?" Juniper asked, coming back into the conversation with a folder in her hands.

"Nope. Just the basic stuff like waking up, the fact that I did something to begin with, and then going to bed. It's all just one big pink blur." I told them with a slightly defeated look.

"Pink blur?" The Professor- _God, why can't I remember his name right now? _-asked me.

"Yeah...Or...Was it a flash-you guys get the point." I cut to the point. "Either way, I don't see how any of this explains how I got here."

"Well, it does help lead to two possible explanations." Professor Juniper explained. "You see, on Sunday of last week at 2:12, a very odd thing happened that has never happened before. A light pink, aura like pulse in the sky emanated from one specific point. It began like a flash, but those in Sinnoh are reporting that it looked like a moving blur. Thus the aura like pulse that we concluded."

"Wait a second, are you saying that..." Sadly, I didn't really have a clue where she was going, so I just trailed off there.

"I'm saying that either you're somehow related to this pulse, or that because of this pulse you were sent from Sinnoh to Professor Sycamore's home." She explained to me. _Not to mention finally reminded me of this dude's name! Thank you Juniper!_

While I sighed in relief for either the fact of remembering his name or that we were getting somewhere with this issue, I suddenly figured another problem. "But wait, how could I have been from Sinnoh? This is the first time I've ever heard of that name, and I'm pretty sure that I haven't forgotten anything besides that day."

"Well, let's see...I know every geographic feature of Sinnoh, so let's see if your town could be in Sinnoh." Rowan told me. "What's your town like? Cold? Moderate? Forest? A nearby lake? Anything that can help tell it apart from another location."

_Okay so it's official. I'm in a whole new country. At least the people here speak English and we're figuring out where my home is._ "Okay, well it's pretty dry where I live and there isn't really any lakes near-"

"Stop." He cut me off with a shake of his head. "I'm sorry young man, but I can tell you right now that San Marcos is definitely not in Sinnoh."

"Huh?! How can you tell that?!" I asked with a small frown. _All I said was that there's no lake and that it's kind of dry. How does that prove_ anything?!

"Because there is no area in Sinnoh that can be described as 'dry'. There is mountainous, but there is also a lake nearby and no settlements. And especially none called San Marcos. It's either forest or snowy for most of Sinnoh."

"Oh..." I deflated a little and sat back in my chair. Knowing that there was nothing 'snowy' near San Marcos.

Juniper decided to add her two cents next. "Now if this was the Unova Region we were talking about, then that's be a different story. There's a desert area and a few hidden towns there that even I'm not familiar with. But they don't call it '_Sinow_' for nothing." She joked with a small laugh in which Sycamore joined in. But me and Professor Rowan weren't finding it too funny.

"Charming." I said sarcastically. "So what does that mean for me then?"

"Well, if I had to guess then that'd mean that you have something to do with the pulse." Rowan told me with a small nod.

"I have something to do with it?" I asked, now suddenly getting a fearful feeling. "Uh...Sorry?" _Seriously, how do I respond to that?_

"Were not saying that you caused it," Juniper said with a shake of her head. _Ya sure? Cause that's kind of what it sounded like to me._ "But we are saying that it has something to do with it. We have a few leads as to what made it happen, but it'll take some research."

"How long?" I asked, hoping that the answer would be 'soon'.

"We're not sure." Rowan answered. Perfect. "It could be weeks, maybe perhaps months." Double perfect. "Even when we do find out what caused it, it may take even longer to try and replicate it or try to reverse it." Triple perfect. "It may not even be possible." And, _Fatality..._

"P-Professor Rowan! You didn't have to say _that_ to him!" Juniper glared at him, witnessing as I was slowly losing my will to do anything thanks to the news. "Don't worry Alex, we'll try to find out how to help you! It shouldn't be too hard really!"

"Yeah, thanks." I dismissed with a small wave before frowning at them. "Still, what am I supposed to do now? I got no family; I have no idea where I am right now; and to top it all off, I may just be in a whole new world where floating balls of gas and purple dinosaur things exist! So what now?!" I told them, not sure whether I was more sad or more angry at this point.

I knew that they didn't do anything wrong. If anything, they have done nothing but help me. And I knew not to sneeze at that. Still, I had the right to be angry at _this!_ And if not, then what was I supposed to do?! I had nothing but the clothes on my back! That being a shirt and sweatpants. Not even shoes! Kinda like the movie Die Hard, but no guns or reason to be here!

"Well if you don't want to wait around for an answer, why not go on an adventure?" Rowan asked me with a raised eyebrow. "Who knows, you may even find your own solution yourself."

"An adventure? Really?" I deadpanned, giving him a bored look. _Hey kids! Ever feel tired about just sitting around without any reason to live?! 'yeah...' Well fear not, for you can go on an ADVENTURE! Never mind the fact that you're fourteen or maybe even younger, just pack your bags in a nice hobo-like manner and hit the road!_

"Actually, that may not be a bad idea." Sycamore said from behind me. _Okay, this guy's starting to scare me now. First he has doors and part of his home destroyed, next he has a kid in some kind of fire suit, a dragon thing stomping around, and now wants to let a fourteen year old have an adventure?!_ "Most trainers go out on their first adventure at ten years of age."

"Ten years?" I asked, suddenly very scared for those kids. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"Not when they have a Pokémon with them. Then their adventure is more fun than difficult." Juniper told me with a nod. "Most trainers go out and catch other Pokémon and train them for battles of all kinds. Sometimes to battle gym leaders and compete in the Pokémon League. Others for Pokémon Contests. And then to just have a fun adventure."

"Pokémon League, huh?" I asked, trying to think this over. "Okay, well I guess that's better than just sitting around. Alright, I guess it's worth a shot."

"Incroyable!" Sycamore said happily. "If that is truly the case, then I'd say we'd better hurry and prepare you for your journey." He told me with a smile.

"In my pajamas?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow. "I'm going to start a journey of 'Incredible Adventure' in my pajamas?" That sounds like the dumbest way to ever start a journey.

"You know, Professor Oak once said that Ask Ketchum ended up coming late in his sleep wear when he received Pikachu. That has to be one of the oddest stories I've ever heard about a trainer receiving his first Pokémon." Rowan said with a shake of his head.

"Really? Because I have a better one where this one kid ended up dropping into my lab thanks to a wild Gliscor." Juniper said with a nod. Making all three of us just give her a confused look. "Uh...Well, anyway, I better get going! This research has just gotten much more important! Goodbye!" She then quickly turned off her video phone to avoid the awkward stares.

_Smooth move, Professor__ Juniper...Smooth move..._

"I should go as well. It might be best of me to assist Professor Juniper in this project. Best of luck to you on your adventure Alex. I'll try an contact you whenever me or Juniper have made any progress." He then left himself. Ending the video chat once and for all.

"Well Alex, I'll go ahead an arrange for some clothes to be dropped off. Until then, feel free to familiarize yourself with any of the books in the library. They may come in handy when preparing for your journey. I'll be back soon." Sycamore said before stepping out of the room himself.

"Got it, thanks." I said, getting up and going off. There were signs near almost all doors, so I was sure that I could find the library. Still, how was I supposed to handle something like this? It was obvious that I had no way in communicating with anyone back home, or getting back soon. Do I just put it aside or use that as a drive

_So I guess the next problem that I have to try and figure out is, how do I start a journey anyway?_

* * *

**? POV**

"_Ladies and gentlemen, we hope you enjoyed your flight. And once more, we hope you enjoy the Kalos Region. Have a great day._" The pilot had announced as everyone started to get off the plane.

I couldn't help but smile as I got up and got my bags. It was a whole new journey, and this time I was determined. I may not have one the last Pokémon League, but I could almost feel like I was going to win this one!

"Well Kirlia, this is it." I said as we both started walking down the steps and onto the ground. Kirlia was just small enough to ride with me on the plane. The airlines were always pretty strict in saying that it had to be a Pokémon no bigger than a child and no heavier than two hundred pounds. And Kirlia was just the right height to sit on my lap.

"_Yes. I can't wait to start._" She told me telepathically. For as long as I could remember, she could talk through her psychic abilities. But to avoid having to explain that to everyone, she just talked to me personally instead of projecting her thoughts into voice. "_Though, do you really think Ash is here, Max?_"

I grinned towards her happily as we went forward to find the nearest phone. "I'm sure of it. And hopefully, we'll be able to show just how good of a team we've gotten when we finally do meet him. But first, we need to tell Mom and Dad we're here.

"_Not to mention May and her Pokémon. I can't wait to see Blaziken's face when we win the League. Especially after what he said to me._" Kirlia looked off to the side in hopes to hide her anger.

I just sighed in response. "You know, you still haven't told me what Blaziken even said that was so aggravating."

"_He called me a weakling! No way am I letting that kick-happy fighting-type call me weak when all he does is compete in contests!_" She yelled out, looking at me with a determined look. "_Promise me you won't choke like you did the Hoenn League Max._"

"Wah?! Hey, I didn't choke!" I said with a small frown. "I was just blindsided was all. I mean, how was I supposed to know that the crowd would actually cheer for me that much?" I asked as we approached a phone. Where I started dialing in the number to call May.

"_Um, Max? No offense, but everyone else saw it coming. Even all the others that you chose to compete with us in the Pokémon League. After all, your father's a Gym Leader and your sister's a professional Coordinator. Too bad that didn't help us when we lost the first battle."_

"I think you're forgetting that the trainer we went up against ended up placing in the top four. So the fact that we were able to take down four of his Pokémon should already be a little impressive."

"_Well...Alright, fair enough._" She jumped up onto the counter as the phone started to wait. May said that she'd be waiting at a Pokémon Center for the call, and soon enough, the screen revealed her sitting there with Skitty in her arms.

_I haven't said a word to her directly since the Hoenn League. Here goes nothing I guess._

* * *

**QotC: Who's the better of the two characters from the anime? May or Max?**


	4. Your Geodude Learned Rock Throw!

**/\**

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**Max's POV**

"Hey Max! Hey Kirlia!" May greeted with an ecstatic smile. "So, you finally made it to the Kalos Region huh?" She and Skitty both looked so happy to see us. Me and Kirlia could both tell that she was afraid to strike a nerve though. She looked like she had been rehearsing this whole conversation to herself.

"Yeah." I smiled a bit awkwardly. Sadly, since I just wanted to forget about my flop at the Hoenn League that also meant that I didn't think of what to say about it. "Uh...Look. May. I'm sorry about how badly I messed up at the League. I really should've had my act together and-"

"Wait. Why are you apologizing? If anything, I should be apologizing for not coming. I was so caught up with all of the after-events from the Grand Festival that I wasn't even in the same Region to cheer you on with Mom and Dad."

"But..." I said with a sigh. What was I even doing right now? I didn't even know the real reason why I was apologizing. "I guess that...I'm just sorry for making you look bad?" It was the only reason I had really. That is why I avoided her until now.

She caught a flight to meet me at the end of the League, which I had to stay for since all the competitors had to line up for a picture and some 'Final Goodbye' ceremony. Of course as soon as that was over, I left before May could even find me.

Mom and Dad were a little angry at me, but after I explained it, Dad switched over to my side and told the others to give me some space. Because of all that, I didn't talk to May until...Well, right now.

"Max, you and I both know that doesn't matter. Let the news say what they want, you're my brother and I'll stand with you till the end." She told me with a nod. "Now come on, tell me what Kalos is like! Is it as amazing as the brochures say they are?!" She and Skitty both looked at us with wide eyes. Now completely caught up in fantasy land.

"Well, I haven't seen too much of it yet. I called you the second I got off the plane. But still, the airport alone still looks pretty great. Not to mention, I can see Prism Tower from here and it's even cooler than what the pictures showed." I said, looking off to the side. "What do you think Kirlia?"

"_It's definitely a sight to see._" She said out loud so the phone would pick it up. "_Not to mention, I'm mostly picking up a calm yet star struck emotion from the locals. It seems that even those who live here are impressed with what goes on."_

They don't call Kirlia the 'Emotion' Pokémon for nothing. At first, I thought that her reading other people's emotions was an invasion of privacy, but since that's how she sees naturally, I couldn't really be mad at her for it. But that didn't mean that I wouldn't be careful whenever trying to hide something around her.

"Really? Even the locals?" May asked. "I guess everything's just that beautiful. Maybe I should just come over and compete in the Kalos Grand Festival..." She mused to herself.

"Nya-nya~!" Skitty said happily.

"_Oh-uh-wait-_" Kirlia stuttered while shaking her hands in denial. Neither of us wanted May to come with us on our own journey.

"But May," I suddenly said out loud. "Didn't Mom and Dad say that you were planning on competing in the Unova Region with Dawn?!" I asked, hoping that the reminder would be enough.

"Nya~!" Skitty said with a dismissive wave of her paw.

"_Skitty, that's the worst excuse I've ever heard."_ Kirlia deadpanned. "_And besides, if Piplup really gets that clingy, just tell Munchlax that he also has a crush on her. That outta keep him away."_ She told her with a small smile.

"Nya...~" Skitty hummed in thought.

"Well, I guess you've got a point. It wouldn't be fair to Dawn if I just canceled the trip." She said with a shrug. "Besides, Harley's not competing in Unova this year anyway."

"Yeah, you see?" I asked, taking this opportunity. "An entire region that Harley can't bother you in. Nothing is better than that." I said with a smile, glad that I was able to avoid May coming to Kalos.

"Excuse me?!" A whiny voice yelled out angrily. "What did you just say about me?!" Before me or Kirlia could even turn around, we could feel the presence of a freak in a Cacturn costume appear behind us. Glaring directly at me.

_Why can it never be easy?_

* * *

**/\**

**\/**

**Alex's POV**

"So all of these animals are Pokémon?" I asked, looking at one animal from the next. There were so many of them all in this one spot that I was surprised that they could all live in this bio-dome.

Me, the Professor, and that Garchomp were all in here watching the other Pokémon play around or do whatever they were doing. The Professor was trying to teach me the basics of Pokémon, which was all sounding like one big complex version of rock, paper, scissors.

All of these Pokémon looked way less intimidating than the floating gas ball, which the Professor told me was a Ghost-Type, and Garchomp. I mean there was a small robin called Fletchling, a ferret looking thing called Linoone, and a flying piece of honeycomb called Combee. They all looked like harmless, if not a little weird looking, animals. And they were the usual inhabitants for forests.

_And honestly, as long as I could avoid the bigger threats an 'adventure' doesn't sound all too bad really._

Also by this point, I was in some normal clothes that the Professor or one of his assistants got from a local store. So now instead of sweatpants and a grey undershirt, I now had jeans, a buttoned up blue shirt with a black pattern, and normal tennis shoes. It was all guesstimated so the clothes weren't a perfect fit, but it was fine for now. And along with all of that, they gave me a backpack that had plenty of space to pack everything I'd need. Now I just needed money to actually buy any of that stuff.

"Yes. I watch over them to try and discover more Pokémon that can mega evolve. Of course, some of the other scientists are interns that are training to become Pokémon Professors themselves. One of which are trying to conduct research on Pokémon Culture. So we have more Pokémon than usual staying here." Sycamore told me while pointing towards a red and white looking sloth-monkey Pokémon.

That Pokémon, and one other that was the same species, were both doing what looked like sit-ups on tree branches. "You see Alex, those two Pokémon are known as Vigoroth. Their both competing for the a female Vigoroth that's sleeping somewhere else at the moment. What's actually interesting about this though is that whenever the female is near, they immediately stop their competition before she can notice."

"And if you look to the left you can see a Pokémon called Seviper, and to the right you'll see another Pokémon called Zangoose. These two were hatched from a Day Care center without any bias of the other. But as if by instinct, they are nature rivals." He pointed to each of them. They were both kind of small looking, so I guessed that they were really young.

"Huh. Any idea why they hate each other?" I looked towards him, curious as to why that was. From birth these two hate each other. I've heard people say that with their brothers or sisters, but it was always some kind of exaggeration.

"Not yet. Luckily, the intern assistant that's conducting the research is a very promising student of mine." Professor Sycamore said with a nod. Then he spotted something that was apparently very interesting. "Now this is actually the most intriguing of them all. Do you see those two fighting-types over there?" He pointed ahead to two Pokémon that were coming out from behind a tree.

"Uh, yeah. One looks like a yellow sumo-wrestler, and the other looks like a purple boxer." I acknowledged.

"Yes. They're respective names are Makuhita and Tyrogue. And if you look closely towards their torsos, you can see that something's painted there." He explained, pointing towards them to show me what he meant. And as he said, each of them had bronze colored paint that resembled a fist.

"Some fighting-type Pokémon follow a sort of training called 'The Way of the Fist'. What we can gather is that the goal to mastering this type of training is to master every punch move there is. There are other trainings like this as well such as 'The Way of the Kick', 'The Way of the Claw', 'The Way of The Wave', these types of trainings are a prime example of Pokémon Culture."

I looked towards the two Pokémon and saw that both of them were yelling at each other with...There own names...Weird. Still, they somehow understood each other and only got angrier and angrier with each other until the sumo-wrestler Pokémon, Makuhita, finally pointed towards a small tree.

"Seems that they're about to try and have a competition themselves." Sycamore sat back. "I wonder who will win this time."

"This time? What, have they been-" "MAKU!" Suddenly, the Makuhita punched the tree dead center. Shaking it and forcing a Pokémon that was covered in leaves to nearly fall out of the tree. But before it hit the ground, it shot a string out from its mouth and latched on to a different tree.

"Happiny?" A small pink Pokémon with a stone in its pouch asked out loud. It looked a little ticked off as if this was some kind of routine.

"Zang." Zangoose said with a dismissive wave, not looking very impressive.

"Bid-Bidoof!" A beaver looking Pokémon said excitedly. I guess it wanted to build something out of the tree once they were done with it or something.

"Ty-Rogue rogue..." Tyrogue shook his head as Makuhita stepped aside. He then got in a boxing pose and wound up his arm for a few seconds. Resulting in his hand glowing with a white glow. As soon as the glow had reached its maximum potential, Tyrogue punched the tree. Resulting in it shaking even more than when Makuhita hit it. So much so, that the ground started to loosen up a bit around the tree.

"Sssev-Viper." Seviper hissed with a nod of approval.

"Zagoon, zag-zag-zag-zag." A raccoon-looking Pokémon laughed at Makuhita for how weak he looked compared to Tyrogue now.

"I never expected that little guy to throw a punch like that. Heck, I can't even come close to punching something like that." Honestly, how does that little Pokémon the size of a four year old manage to punch that strong?

"That was Tyrogue's Mach Punch. Now I wonder what Makuhita will try to capitalize with..." He leaned forward as if he was spectating a wrestling match.

"Min-Minccino!" A chinchilla-looking Pokémon yelled out confidentally to Makuhita, cheering him on.

"Maku." Makuhita said with a nod as took a few steps back from the tree and held up both fists in a defensive stance. Then he closed his eyes and took in a breath before winding up his own punch. And just before his eyes snapped open, his fist looked as if it had turned into steel.

What happened next was nearly in the blink of an eye. Makuhita had jumped towards the tree at an incredible speeds and connected his punch to the tree. Needless to say, it was much stronger than Tyrogue's Mach Punch as the strength and momentum combined sent dislodged the tree's roots from the ground. Resulting in it flying out of the ground and into a small pile of rocks. Where the one rock on top also had...

"Are those arms?" I asked, pointing towards the rock in question. But before Sycamore could answer, the send was picked up and thrown away from the rocks and towards the glass walls of the bio-dome. Where upon impact, the tree shattered the window with ease.

"_GEODUDE?!_" The rock with arms then began- floating in the air a few feet off the ground?..._HOW?!_

"Mak! Maku-Makuhita! Hit-Hit-Maku!" Makuhita immediately began yelling parts of his name frantically as he started to back away from the ticked off floating rock. But that didn't help as the rock began picking up nearby normal rocks and throwing them at Makuhita in rage.

"Geodude, settle down! It was an accident!" By now the Professor was up on his feet and tried very carefully to calm the Geodude down. Sadly, the Geodude wasn't having any of it as it ignored the Professor and started chucking more rocks at Makuhita. Who was now beginning to run away to avoid the rocks. Thankfully dodging all of them. "Alex, can you help?!"

"Uh, right!" I said, getting to my feet. I had to get that Geodude's attention somehow so he would leave Makuhita alone. _Well, if he's throwing rocks then...I'll throw a rock too!_

I quickly picked up a small pebble from off of the ground and threw it at the living rock. Nailing him in the right arm.

"Geo..." The rock growled before throwing one of his apparently infinite amount of rocks in my direction.

"AH!" I lunged off to the side, narrowly avoiding the rock as I fell to the ground beside the only wall in the bio-dome.

"_Zangoose_!" Zangoose yelled towards me, pointing behind me towards a watering hose that was plugged into a faucet, but turned off at the moment.

"Geodude, you need to calm down!" "Garchomp!" The Professor was trying to get close, but upon getting within ten feet of the angry rock, Geodude tossed a rock towards the Professor. Which Garchomp caught as if it was a Dodgeball game.

_If only it was that easy._

"MAKU!" Makuhita yelled out as he kept dodging every rock thrown. Just running in circles as Geodude kept up his assault.

"Hey, Rock-Head!" I yelled out over all the commotion, making everyone look towards me as I stood as far as the hose could reach. "Here! Have a drink!" I yelled out the best pun I could come up with as I put my thumb over the nozzle of the running hose. Making the water become more pressurized as it propelled towards the Geodude. Hitting him dead center in the face and even knocking the rock he had out of his hand.

"Bull's-eye!" I yelled out, stopping the water spray as I grinned victoriously. "Now can you please just calm- Huh?!" I yelled out as he had already picked up two rocks and thrown them. Giving me no time whatsoever to jump out of the way.

So instead, that Pokémon covered in the leaves from earlier jumped in front of me and used some kind of power. Making a force field looking thing appear in front of both of us. Which the rocks simply bounced off of ineffectively.

"Woah! Thank you...Uh, Pokémon-guy." I said awkwardly since I didn't know it's name.

"Burmy." It said with a friendly nod. _Alright, so do all Pokémon only talk with their names? Is that how their named to begin with?_

"Geo...Dude!" The rock began throwing rock after rock towards the glowing shield. And with each rock, I saw Burmy flinch just a little each time. But thankfully, the Geodude ran out of rocks that were directly under him and looked around for more.

"Burmy, get outta the way!" I said, aiming the hose back towards Geodude. Burmy complied and moved while I put my thumb back over the nozzle just in time to knock one of the two rocks Geodude had picked up.

He pulled back him arm to throw the second rock, but I pointed the nozzle directly at him. Ready to fire a blast of water any time I needed to. "Up, up, up! Put the rock down!" I commanded, not lowering the nozzle even a little.

"Geo..." He growled again, glaring at me with an ice-cold stare that almost made me shiver. He didn't lower his ammunition either. _It was a Mexican Standoff. A Mexican Standoff with a rock... Not sure if that's impressive or just plain sad._

"Put the rock down, and no one gets wet." I said slowly, moving my thumb closer to the nozzle. "I guarantee you that this water will hit you before you so much as twitch that throwing arm. So. Put. The. Rock. Down..." I repeated.

"Geo..." He growled, thinking really hard about testing his luck. But when he looked around and saw all the other Pokémon staring him down, he saw that he was outnumbered. "Dude." He dropped the rock with a sigh. Knowing that he had been beat.

Following my end of our one sided negotiation, I quickly dropped the hose and held up my hands slightly to show that I wasn't making a move for it. "See? No rocks, no water."

"Huh?" Professor Sycamore asked as Tyrogue got his attention. And after doing some Simon Says tricks and pointing towards the broken window, he gasped. "And no Makuhita!" He told me with a frown.

"What?!" I quickly turned towards the window, but instead of seeing Makuhita, I saw a Zangoose with a bow on its ear jump out the window as well. "And there goes the Zangoose!"

"Oh no! If she gets startled, someone might get hurt!" He quickly turned to me. "Alex, I need you to look for Makuhita while I get Zangoose. Can you do that for me?" He asked calmly as he started for the exit where as Garchomp went towards the window to stop anything else from getting out.

"Me?! Dude, I'm not from around here! I don't know where anything is in Kalos!" I told him while shaking my head in shock.

"Well, neither does Makuhita. He's just running on impulse. It's probably best for someone unfamiliar to Kalos to go after him. As soon as I find Zangoose, I'll meet you at Prism Tower! The large building in the center of the city! You can't miss it! Good luck!" He finished his last few sentences as quickly as he could and ran out the door. Leaving me no choice but to sigh in defeat and follow suit.

But before I did, I turned towards the rest of the room. "All of you stay here...And Geodude for God's sake, don't throw anymore rocks!" I told him before running out of the room myself.

"Geo..." He said with a pout before crossing his arms and floating over to a different rocky terrain to rest on.

* * *

**/\**

**\/**

**Max's POV**

After we both got through a thick crowd of people, I finally tried catching my breath. As soon as he suddenly showed up behind me, we and Kirlia started running from him and his Cacturne in attempt to lose him in the giant city of Lumiose. We lost him once, but a few minutes later, we saw him trying to catch up to us stealthily. So we've been trying to get away from him as inconspicuously as possible.

"Did we lose him?!" I asked while trying to look natural.

"_I think so. I can't sense anyone with an angry aura...Although up ahead I can sense a few people and Pokémon alike with aggravation."_ Kirlia told me telepathically.

"Aggravation? Huh, I wonder why...Let's check it out." I told her before she nodded and led the way. We were towards the center of the city now after trying to stay away from Harley, and we could see a small group of others that were around my age, that being almost eleven, and a little older. They were all obviously trainers as shown by the Pokémon that were around them, the Pokéballs on their belts, and backpacks that they carried their traveling gear in.

But the weird thing was that they looked a little beat up and...Electrified? How's come they look like they've been electrified? And not just them, but the Pokémon with them looked as if they've been shocked as well.

"Excuse me," I began as me an Kirlia walked up. "What happened to all of you?" I didn't really know how else to ask the question, so I kept it blunt.

"The Gym Leader." One of them said with a mix of anger and disappointment. "We went in there and wanted him to battle us, but when we told him that we didn't have four badges, then he kicked us out. Painfully." He said as his Pokémon, which I couldn't recognize, whimpered as a small course of static went over its fur.

"I had enough badges though." Another trainer said with a raise of his hand. "As did Ashley here." He said, gesturing towards a girl that was right besides him. They looked to be the oldest out of the four people here. "We walked in and saw this weird guy dressed up as a robot. He beat us without any problem and sent us out of the gym through some kind of trapdoor."

"A trapdoor?!" Me and Kirlia looked at each other. "Well that's a little extreme, don'tcha think?!"

"What's even more extreme is that it leads out through the center of that emblem." The girl pointed us towards the emblem which resembled a Pokéball in the shape of a lightning bolt. "Everyone flies out and falls to the ground. But luckily, it looks like someone was nice enough to set up a cushion for everyone to land on."

"_Woah-oh-oh!.._." We all kept quiet as we heard a faint yell come from the building as the center circle from the Pokéball-lightning emblem open up. And seconds later an Aron flew out and fell like a rock, no pun intended, towards the cushion. Landing on it but also popping it as a result. Leaving it flattened as the trainer himself came out from the trapdoor's exit. Towards a now uninflated cushion.

"_AHHHHHHHHHHH!"_ He screamed bloody murder as he plummeted. The trainer looked even younger than I did. So much so that he might've been even younger than ten.

"Kirlia, help him down. Quick!" I said quickly, watching as Kirlia's eyes glowed a light blue when she caught the trainer with her psychic and slowly brought him back down to the ground.

"Okay...That is the _last_ time I try to go into this gym!" The kid said as he stood up. He then picked up his Aron and looked at it with a sad look. "Come on Aron, let's get you to the Pokémon Center."

"Uh, Wallace? I'm pretty sure Aron's not..." The girl sighed. "Come on Dave, let's follow him. Besides, our Pokémon need to go to the Center too. Bye kid." She told me as she and Dave got up to catch up with Wallace.

"Kirlia, let's try and face this Gym Leader ourselves." I told her with a frown. "Someone needs to teach him some manners."

"_I agree. It's one thing to be tough, but another to literally throw out your competitors."_ Kirlia agreed with a nod. "_The entrance is over there. And if they say that they're going through a trapdoor, then there must be a set of stairs or some type of elevator that lead upwards."_

"Good point. Let's go." I walked forward and she followed as the other two trainers and their Pokémon simply watched. Silently wishing us luck as we walked inside.

* * *

**And that'll about do it for this episode. For those that are starting to take notice, this story is following parallel to the Pokémon Series. It won't follow Ash and friends, and they won't be coming into the story either. Though they will be mentioned here and there.**

**See you all next chapter everyone!**

**QotC: If you were to run into any character from the Pokémon series- not A Pokémon, a human character -then which one would you want to meet?**


	5. Cacturne of Events

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**Max's POV**

"Well, either the gym leader's electric-type based, or they're just obsessed with technology. Either way, this place is creeping me out." Kirlia said out loud as she walked beside me.

"Yeah. You'd think that the inside would be more well lit." The outside of the tower was a beacon within itself, and the lobby on the first floor was lit up too. But after getting out of that elevator, it was dark in here.

There were columns with electricity surging through them on both sides of us and a pathway that led to a metallic door and a monitor that was hooked up above it. "Hello? We'd like to talk to the Gym Leader." I called out, hoping that someone would hear us.

We stood in front of the door and watched as the monitor turned on in front of us. Showing a yellow and green aura-like background with that same PokéLightning emblem spinning in the middle. "**Welcome to the Lumiose Gym.**"

"Oh, um, hi there." I said, looking up to the screen. The Gym Leader was most likely watching or listening from some kind of camera or speaker, so we probably had to talk to him from here. "You're the Gym Leader, right? I'm Max, and I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Max, something's wrong. I'm not sensing anyone around." Kirlia warned me with some caution to her voice. She could sense the emotions of anything for a decent distance, so that was already a little alarming.

"**How many badges do you have?**" It asked, ignoring my question. _This is getting a little strange._

"Badges? Oh, well, we just got to the Kalos Region, so we don't have any badges yet. But if I have to have a certain amount to battle than that's fine. But the thing is that-"

"**You have none?!**" The voice asked, definitely sounding like it had some emotion to it. Oddly enough though, Kirlia still didn't sense the spike of emotion. If this wasn't a real person than it seemed pretty realistic with that response. "**Not a single gym badge?! In order to challenge the Lumiose Gym, you must have accumulated at least four gym badges.**" _Yep. Definitely a recording._

At that moment, two Tesla Coils lowered towards us from the top left and right corners and started to conduct static in a menacingly. "**Please leave immediately!**"

This was a pre-recorded voice asking us to leave and preset Tesla Coils charging up already. It wasn't giving us a warning, it was giving a command. There was no reasoning with it and no escaping the coils in time. Not without some kind of deactivation code or master controls. Which meant that the only way out of this was with quick thinking.

"Kirlia, use protect!" I told her, to which she understood fully and surrounded us both with a dome of protection. Good thing too, because just as I predicted, the coils tried to electrocute us without any chance to leave by our own free will.

"Good call." Kirlia complimented. Sadly, just as the coils stopped trying to zap us, the floor opened up beneath us. Making both of us fall down into a vent system that was leading us outside the building. "We forgot about the trapdoor!"

She was falling right beside me, so I took her hand in attempt to hold onto her. And before we knew it, we were sent flying outside through the emblem. Except this time, there was no air cushion to break our fall.

Still, Kirlia was still with me. "Kirlia, use teleport!" I told her as we both fell towards the ground. But before we landed, her eyes glowed blue and we instantly appeared just a foot above the ground. Allowing us to just fall from that short distance instead of the twenty to thirty foot drop from above.

"_OW!_" Kirlia cried out as she landed. She fell into a sitting position and held her leg in pain. Wincing as she tried to move it even the smallest amount.

"Oh no, Kirlia what happened?!" I quickly picked her up so she wouldn't put any weight on it. But regardless, she kept a hold of her leg in hopes to keep it from hurting.

"I think I twisted my ankle. Can we try and get to the Pokémon Center?" She asked with a pained expression.

"Yeah, don't worry. I know you don't really like it, but let's go ahead and let you rest in your Pokéball for now. That way it won't hurt on the way to the Center." I told her while getting her Pokéball out. Most of the time, she was just like Ash's Pikachu. She likes walking with me outside her Pokéball because she likes to explore and see the world for herself. Of course, if she's hurt or it's bad weather than she'll prefer the Pokéball more than being outside.

"Well if it isn't the Coordinator May's brother, Max." A snarky voice said from behind me. _Oh, why now?! Of all times to show up and be annoying, it had to be now!_

"What do you want Harley?" I asked while turning around with Kirlia in my arms. And when I saw him I could see a small crowd of people, a few reporters, and cameramen all looking at me with their cameras recording live.

"I want a battle. I heard that May's brother had come to Kalos to hide his shame from horribly failing the Hoenn League and I wanted to show the world that it was obviously not a stroke of bad luck." Harley was acting as if he hadn't been chasing me down. He was acting for the cameras, and trying to attack May through me.

"I'm not battling you Harley. My Kirlia's hurt and I need to take her to the Pokémon Center." I said as I started to walk towards the nearest Center. I could spot a nearby red roof from here, and I wasn't about to let this jerk have his fifteen minutes of fame on live television.

"Cact-Cacturne turne, turne, turne." Cacturne started to chuckle towards Kirlia. Making her frown for a few seconds before looking towards me with a blank face.

"_Max. Put me down_." Kirlia told me telepathically, keeping very calm.

"Kirlia, I can't put you through a battle right now. If your ankle gets even worse then I don't know what I'll-"

"_Max, that living cactus just called me 'frail'. No way am I letting him get away with that. Plus, a twisted ankle isn't anything to worry about. I'll just use my other leg to kick his butt. Besides, there are cameras watching us. If news about me too injured to fight gets to Blaziken, I will never hear the end of it from him._"

I sighed. "It always goes back to showing up Blaziken, doesn't it? Fine..." I set Kirlia down beside me and she turned to face the two of them. Standing on her right leg in order to keep the pressure off of her left ankle. Good thing Kirlia's were a natural at having perfect balance. "Alright Harley, we'll battle you. Just no cheating like you do in your contests."

I know I didn't have to say that last part, but hey the cameras were rolling. Only fair I play that card to get even for the Hoenn League insult.

"I-I have no idea what you're talking about, you little liar!" He yelled out, trying to very quickly recover in front of the cameras. Long story short, it wasn't working. "Now, a one on one battle seems long enough to prove your lack of talent."

"Alright, fine. I only need Kirlia anyway." That was such a bold faced lie. I really didn't want to put Kirlia through a battle right now, but Kirlia was the only Pokémon I had with me. She wanted to battle though, so maybe she would be okay.

_I just hope that I'm not going in too deep._

* * *

**Alex's POV**

"Where did he go?!" I yelled out in anger, probably scaring the three or four people that were just walking past me. "Ugh, I can't believe this! Why did I agree to try and find that Pokémon?!"

I had no idea what I was doing, and now I just looked insane. I was running around town for what seemed to be an hour! It was really just ten or twenty minutes, but fact remained, I was lost now. For all I know, Makuhita could've gone the other direction and was clear on the other side of town now.

"Excuse me," I turned around to face whoever was trying to get my attention. "Alex, right?" It was that officer lady from before. "I got a call or two saying that someone was running around town like a Torchic with its head cut off. You wouldn't happen to know who that someone is, would you?" She rose an eyebrow at me, curious as to what I was doing.

"Yeah, that's me." I said a little awkwardly. "You see, a window in Professor Sycamore's Lab busted open and two Pokémon got out. He's going after one Pokémon, while I'm going after the other. And for the life of me, I cannot find this Makuhita."

"Well, that explains why you're running around. So, the Pokémon is Makuhita? Let me check something real quick." She quickly took out a small blue and white iPad looking device and began typing on it. And seconds later, a holographic picture of Makuhita showed up.

"Woah..." I said in awe. I saw a few really cool looking machines in the Professor's lab, but I only expected much from a scientist. But it was even more amazing that this thing was apparently 'normal' for everyday police officers here. Or at least, it seemed normal judging by the calm and not too amazed look on her face showing how she was used to it.

"Yeah, it is pretty great, huh? All police officers in the Kalos Region have this device. It's called the PokéID. We use it to identify all known Pokémon and criminals. It's only a few months old and it uses the new Halo Caster Technology. You're working for Professor Sycamore with his research, right? So you've probably heard of Lysandre Labs." She said with a nod.

"Not really. You see, I am working as an intern for Professor Sycamore like I said earlier, but I just came here from Sinnoh a few days ago." Me and the Professor spent some time to try and make up an alibi for me to play around with. Not much yet, but just enough to fit in until we came up with something more concrete.

The story was that I came here from Canalave City in Sinnoh to help him with his research. I wasn't all that good in school, so I wanted to make up for it by being an intern for a Professor. So Professor Rowan sent me here to help Professor Sycamore and learn about Pokémon.

It wasn't anything to detailed, but it was just the start. Once I got more familiar with how this world worked, we'd figure out the rest. Luckily for me, it seemed that I was getting it all down pretty well.

"Ah. Well in that case, watch this." She pressed a button and a few more holograms, mostly writing and graphs that I couldn't understand since I was standing opposite of the direction, started appearing. Followed by the device explaining what that all meant.

"**Makuhita, the guts Pokémon.**" The PokéID announced. "**This Pokémon stands at an average of three feet and three inches and weighs at around one-hundred and ninety pounds. For small towns or cities near forests and caves, a wild Makuhita is not uncommon. Although for towns far from forests or heavily populated cities, Makuhita sightings are quite rare. They aren't normally aggressive and do not try to be a threat, but because of their large diet and urge of harsh training, their threat level is Above Average.**"

"That's a lot to collect." I said, watching as she put it away.

"Yeah, but you can usually tell which Pokémon's dangerous or not. Either way, it shouldn't be too hard to help you find-huh?" Before she could legitimately agree to help me look for him, the PokéID started ringing. Causing her to have to take it out once again and answer it.

_Man, you gotta hate whenever your phone rings just as you put it away. It looks like it always gets on everyone's nerves, even in this world judging by her expression._

"Officer Jenny reporting. What seems to be the problem?" She asked, standing professionally as the hologram showed a man in a suit looking downright terrified. "Mr. Grand! Is everything okay?!"

"No, not at all!" He yelled out worriedly. "I don't know how or why, but some crazed Zangoose is ripping apart my lobby! Professor Sycamore's trying to calm it down, but I don't think it's working! Please, come qui-_GAH!_" The message then immediately ended. _That is definitely not a good sign._

"Sorry Alex, but I think that the Professor may need my help more. Zangoose is much more dangerous than Makuhita." She told me with a sad look. But with what I had just heard, I think I'll understand. "Good luck!" She ran over towards a bike that was parked on the side of the street and revved it up. Driving off faster than she should've been going in this tightly packed city.

"Thanks...I'll need it." I sighed and turned around, looking around as I walked. I know that I could be having a worse time with catching that Zangoose, but Makuhita was still pretty hard to find.

Regardless, the Professor had at least found Zangoose. Meanwhile, I was still trying to figure out where the heck Makuhita went. "Okay, I gotta stop and think about this for a second. That machine said that Makuhita wants to either train, or eat. Not only that, but he has no idea where he's going. So if I was walking around a giant town having no idea where to go...Which pretty much describes exactly what I'm doing right now, I'd probably want to find a wide open space that's not so crowded."

"...Okay, perfect! So all that means is that I have to find a gym with tons of space and free food!" I concluded while punching the palm of my hand in realization. "...Oh, that's just _stupid_! Where would anyone find a place like that?!"

"Hey Leon, did you hear?!" Some kid ahead of me yelled out as he ran up to another kid. I'm guessing that they're friends. "There's a battle going on in front of the Lumiose Gym! Not only that, but there's vendors all over the place selling food _and_ there's cameramen putting it all on TV!"

"Woah, really?! That's awesome! Hey, if it's live then maybe we can photobomb the cameras!" The other kid, named Leon, said excitedly.

_Huh...Well that was convenient._

"Hey, guys hold on a second!" I quickly ran over to them before they could get too far away. "I'm new here! Where's this gym place at?!" If everyone was running in that one direction, then maybe Makuhita was headed there too. Besides, a gym sounds about right for a Pokémon that loves training. Plus a Pokémon would probably try to take some food not knowing that it's supposed to be sold. After all, they are this world's version of animals.

"Well the Gym's inside Prism Tower, but the battle's on the field outside!" Leon pointed up towards the top of the tower that was peaking out above some buildings. "You can't miss it, it's in the middle of this giant courtyard! Not only that, but whenever there's something big going on there, usually some venders try to set up there!"

"Oh man! Do you think the Funnel Cake Guy's gonna be there?!" The first kid asked.

"He better! Come on, let's hurry!" They both then took off running towards the tower. With me running after them. Obviously those two knew where they were going, so it was only best to follow them to this gym.

* * *

**Max's POV**

Both me and Harley stood on either side of the field that was made into the outside of the Lumiose Gym. The markings for the Pokémon field were a little worn down because of time, but we could still see it all just fine. And judging by the looks on everyone's faces, this wasn't a kind of thing that happened often.

Most of them looked like they didn't know either of us. In fact, none of them knew me at all. Though it looked like there were some fan girls of Harley that knew him here. That was probably the most shocking part about the battle thus far.

But what everyone did know is that Harley was, one way or another, important enough to warrant cameramen to watch our battle. Meaning that if they had to chose a side, it automatically went to Harley.

Not long after we got ready to battle, one person that was neutral to both sides decided to step up and act as referee. He had ridden in on a motorcycle with his Ampharos and after he found out what was going on, he went over to the side of the field where the referee always stood.

"Alright then! My name is Meyer and I'll be the ref for this match! Now for those that just arrived, this will be a one on one Pokémon battle with Harley the Pokémon Coordinator with his Cacturne, and Max with his Kirlia! This match will go on until one side is unable to battle! Now, let the battle begin!" He declared as most of the fan girls started cheering for Harley immediately.

Harley immediately started the battle before I could even think of my first move. "Cacturne, start off with Needle Arm!" Cacturne began running towards Kirlia with the needles on his arm extending slightly and his entire right arm glowing white.

"Counter with Protect!" Kirlia kept her balance on one leg and held out her arms towards the side. Creating a light-green, see-through barrier that easily blocked the Needle Arm. Cacturne saw this and as soon as the white glow around his arm faded and the needles retracted, he jumped away from Kirlia by about seven feet.

But it wasn't enough. "Now, use Confusion!" Before Harley could register what I said, Kirlia held her hands towards Cacturne as her eyes glowed white. Making a ripple effect appear around Cacturne's head and close in towards him. Hitting him with the Confusion attack successfully.

"Err..." He growled in anger, before suddenly grinning from ear to ear. "Now, use Bullet Seed towards Kirlia's feet!" Cacturne still looked dazed from the Confusion, but shook it off and spat out Bullet Seed towards Kirlia.

Before I knew it, she was trying to dodge the seeds herself. But since she couldn't just dodge them while on one leg, she instinctively took a misstep with injured ankle. Causing her to flinch as the Bullet Seed hit her and sent her backwards about four feet. Only making her ankle worse than it already was.

"Kirlia!" I looked to her worriedly as she sat up. _I knew that this was a bad idea. Kirlia's going to end up needing more than just a check-up at the Pokémon Center if this keeps up!_

"_I'm...I'm fine..."_ She sad telepathically as she stayed seated on the ground while Cacturne chuckled darkly at her. "_You only got me because that was a cheap shot..."_ She muttered, forgetting that she was still speaking to me.

"Hey, what are you doing?! Someone! Stop that little thief!" A man from somewhere beyond the crowd yelled out in anger about someone stealing something. I couldn't tell what was going on since the crowds were too thick, but it didn't matter in the end. Even though I'd be glad to help, I wouldn't be able to do anything to help with this battle needing my full attention.

"Huh? Wha-_Hey_! There you are!" A teenager yelled out, followed by a few shouts here and there. Regardless, I just shook my head and put all my attention on the battle.

"So, are you ready to admit that you're just as bad with Pokémon as your sister?" Harley gave me a cocky grin as he let the insult take it's time to be heard on TV, and registered by me and the audience.

That was his plan, wasn't it? He was going to use me to get to May. I could only guess that he made sure that these cameras would reach all regions. After all, he was making so many personal insults to May that they had to have been mean for her directly. Meaning that Mom and Dad were probably watching this too.

I couldn't let him win this battle. If he did, it would only be something for him to use against May. If that wasn't enough to persuade me into putting my all into the match, then Dad's job was. If Harley started going around saying that our family were failures, how would that end for the Gym?

I glared at him as both me and Kirlia were ready to take him down. Not holding back in the slightest. "Not a chance! Kirlia, use Psychic!" Her eyes glowed blue once more as a blue aura surrounded Cacturne and lifted him into the air. Kirlia then smirked as she threw him towards the ground.

"Use Cotton Spore!" Harley commanded. Cacturne then quickly turned to face the ground as he used Cotton Spore. Making a landing pad for him to land on. "Now, use Bullet Seed once more!"

"Use Teleport!" She nodded and in the blink of an eye disappeared from her spot. Avoiding the second Pin Missile successfully. "Good!" I said with a smile. I didn't know where Kirlia was exactly, but both of us had practiced this strategy before. She would hide somewhere where she could still here my commands, but completely out of sight from both me and the other person.

"Makuhita, get back here!" That same teenager from before yelled out. "Excuse me! Sorry! Need to get by! Beg pardon! Wonderful weather we're having! Hey, watch it!" Whatever was going on, it sounded like he was in a hurry to catch what I could only assume was a Makuhita.

"Now, Teleport near Cacturne and use Confusion once more!" I told, only focusing on Cacturne and making sure not to look at any specific spot. Most all the time, everyone expects a surprise attack to come at them from behind or beneath them, so me and Kirlia accounted for that.

And because of that, Kirlia teleported from wherever she may have been hiding and prepared to attack.

Only for Harley to counter with a fool-proof plan that was actually fool-proof for once. "Oh no you don't! Cacturne, spin in place and use Needle Arm!"

"_What_?!" I yelled out, not expecting that in the slightest. But it was too late as Kirlia had already teleported to her predetermined spot right beside Cacturne to attack. Only to be hit in the face with a Needle Arm. Sending her flying back towards the middle of the field and land rather painfully on her back. "No! Kirlia!"

"Makuhita, stop!" Once more that teen yelled out, sounding very concerned about the Makuhita...Who was now running out into the middle of the arena with an armful of...

"Funnel cake?" I asked out of complete confusion. That's what it looked like anyway. It was small cakes with powdered sugar, so I assumed that it was funnel cake anyway. "What's going on..."

As I watched the Pokémon cutting through the middle of the field, he had dropped one of his funnel cakes and slipped on it. Causing him fly into the air like a cartoon and drop the rest of the fairground treats he was carrying as he fell onto his back in a daze directly in front of Kirlia. Accidentally getting in between Cacturne's line of fire in the process.

"Cacturne, finish this with Poison Sting!" Harley yelled out in complete and utter determination to defeat me. Ignoring the fact that a third Pokémon had ran onto the field. Whether he was somehow oblivious to the fact or he just simply didn't care, it was still entirely wrong of him to do so. He even had a few seconds to call off the attack, but didn't do anything about it.

To make matters even worse than that, Cacturne didn't seem to care either as he prepared the Poison Sting which was now going to hit both Makuhita and Kirlia in one go. Seeing this myself, I wanted to call off the battle or stop it temporarily in order to keep the wandering Pokémon from getting hurt. But I couldn't do anything to help as I was too far away.

Kirlia was in the middle of the arena, and Makuhita had landed even farther ahead of her. In the time it would take for me to get over to the two of them, the Poison Sting would've already hit them and the damage would've been done.

"Ma?..._Maku_!" The random Makuhita yelled out in shock as he sat up and saw the needle-like projectiles flying towards him. He was still on the ground and was too caught off-guard to try and avoid the attack. Leaving him no choice but to watch as that Teenager from earlier kept running towards him with the intention of getting him out of the way from our battle.

Except once he spotted Cacturne firing a Poison Sting towards Makuhita, he made a split-second decision. So instead of running towards Makuhita, he ran just ahead of him and held out his arms to act as a shield. Attempting to cover Makuhita and take the Poison Sting for him. Stunning not only Makuhita, but me, the entire crowd, and whoever may have been watching thanks to the cameras as well.

"Hita?..." Makuhita looked up towards his trainer in complete surprise as he slowly got up. Looking back and forth between his trainer and the Cacturne that had fired the Poison Sting in the first place.

Thankfully for the Teenager, Poison Sting wasn't that painful for trainers. Poison Sting was an attack that fired needle-like objects towards the target at alarming speeds. But the good thing about them was that they dissolves instantaneously upon impact of anything, whether living or non-living. This also meaning clothes as well. So if you had a shirt and regular pants, you would be completely safe as long as a Poison Sting didn't get your head or arms.

But whenever Poison Sting does make direct physical contact, it felt as if you were being poked by thousands of needles. It never left a wound or mark since it dissolved immediately after contact, but it still hurt to be poked with a needle nonetheless. Not to mention, he had just as much a chance to get poisoned as any other Pokémon had.

"Ow..." The Teenager said weakly as he stood limp. "Makuhita, please tell me that you're okay..." He said, hoping that he didn't jump in the way of the Poison Sting for nothing.

"Maku-hita." He said with a nod, dusting off the sugared powder that was all over him from the funnel cakes.

"I'm gonna take that as a yes..." He said, trying to recover from the needles that got him in the arms and head.

"Hey!" Harley yelled out, glaring at the Teenager. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"What I'm doing?" The Teenager repeated the question, turning towards Harley. "I'm sorry, but if I'm remembering right you're the one who fired...All of that stuff at us!" He yelled out, not sure just what had hit him since he probably wasn't paying attention to the battle. "Besides, you had more than enough time to call off your...Pokémon before he fired that attack!" He added, not knowing what Pokémon Cacturne was either.

_Wow, he really didn't pay any attention did he?_

"Well _maybe_ I wouldn't have to call off my Cacturne if you could learn to control your Pokémon better!" Harley argued, now completely forgetting the fact that we were in the battle to start arguing with this Teenager and his Pokémon.

Makuhita glared at Harley before realizing that Kirlia was behind him and just watching this entire thing play out. So he temporarily turned away from Harley and offered Kirlia some help to stand up. Which she gladly accepted.

"_Thank you._" Kirlia said as she winced from accidentally putting pressure on her left ankle. She was making sure that her telepathy also reached me so I would know what was going on.

"Maku, Makuhita?" The Pokémon asked, looking worried about her injury.

"_No, this isn't from the battle. I twisted my ankle right before these two challenged us._" Kirlia informed him, momentarily glaring at the Cacturne which seemed to be in his own little world.

"Hita?! Makuhita, maku!" The Pokémon then turned and glared angrily at the Cacturne, who's attention now went towards the two Pokémon that were glaring at him. Of course, his only reaction was a satisfied grin towards them.

"_Yeah, it was pretty unfair wasn't it?_" Kirlia nodded in agreement.

"Okay, two things wrong with that." The Teenager started. "Firstly, Makuhita's not my Pokémon. Second, I'm sorry. I didn't know that I had to be on the lookout for a freak in a costume!" He yelled out, earning both snickers from some of the people in the audience and disapproving looks from all of Harley's fan girls.

"F-Freak in a costume?!" Harley repeated, completely shocked about what he had said. "I'll have you know that this a signature look! After all, I'm known across all the regions!"

"Never heard of you." He deadpanned, earning some louder laughs from the crowd. Loud enough to drown out the negative 'boos' from Harley's fans. "And for the sake of everyone, I _really_ hope you're lying about that being a signature look. Because you look like a cactus with a purple mop on its head."

"_Max, this guy is hilarious!_" Kirlia said, trying not to laugh right now, where as the Makuhita was back on the ground rolling around. Neither of them caring about the glare Cacturne was giving them.

"_Err..._" Harley growled, looking out of the corner of his eye. "Well obviously you've never heard of me! Just by looking at your shirt, I can already tell that you have no taste." He smirked in victory as he crossed his arms and stuck his nose in the air as if to make a pose that would make the Teenager look worse by comparison. Which honestly wasn't working.

"My shirt?" He then checked his own shirt, which was just an average everyday blue buttoned up shirt with a black design on it, and looked to Harley confusedly. "It's a normal shirt. Maybe you should get one! It'd be better than the pajamas you're in right now!"

The crowd started erupting in laughter again, now even one or two of the cameramen joining in. Makuhita had recovered from his own laughing fit by this time however and had gotten up to stand by his train-err...Not trainer, and turned towards him.

"Maku! Maku-Makuhita!" He yelled out, making a boxer's pose as if to tell the Teenager that he was ready.

"Um..." He hummed in thought. "Sorry Makuhita, but I don't know what you're trying to tell me." He shrugged as they both frowned towards the other.

"_He said that he, and I quote 'Wants to battle the freaky looking Cacturne...And his Pokémon.'_" Kirlia said as she tapped the Teenagers leg. Speaking just quiet enough that only he and Makuhita could hear her. Plus, the telepathy connection she chose to maintain with me.

"Wait a second...Aren't you a Pokémon?" He asked Kirlia. "How did you just say something other than your name?"

"_All psychic-types that learn to read thoughts can speak to humans. But because explaining it gets old fast, we usually just stay quiet._" She explained, giving him a small annoyed frown. She knew it wasn't his fault though. After all, the question was reasonable enough to ask. Then again, I knew just how annoying it was to explain to everyone that Kirlia could talk.

"Okay..." He said, not sure how to really except that. But soon enough, he just shook his head and chose to go along with it. Taking the news surprisingly well. "Either way, I don't really think that we can just challenge him to a battle."

"A battle?! Huh! That's the first smart thing you've said all day!" Harley yelled out, having barely heard their conversation. "Fine then! Let's battle!"

"Wait, what?" He asked, looking towards me for a second before looking back towards Harley with an unsure look on his face. "Uh...I thought you were battling him and his Pokémon before me. Besides, like I said, Makuhita isn't my..."

Makuhita jumped in front of him and gave a confident grin. Eager to battle Harley and his Cacturne after hearing how unfair the battle was for me and Kirlia. "Maku-hita!" He yelled out.

"You want...You're sure you want to battle?" Makuhita simply nodded in agreement. He stood in silence for a few seconds as he thought it over, then he turned to look at me. "Uh, you mind? At all? In any possible way?" He asked me, looking very concerned now.

"No, I'm fine." I said with a shake of my head. Me and Kirlia both knew that she wouldn't last much longer with that ankle, so it was probably very lucky that he came in when he did. Besides, Makuhita looked extremely excited about having a battle.

"You sure? You're...Perfectly fine? No second thoughts about the idea?" He asked again, making absolutely sure that I was letting him battle. If not a bit excessively.

"Yeah, we're fine with it. Right Kirlia?" I asked her.

"Kirlia." She said out loud with a nod, not wanting to surprise the entire audience with her talking.

"Great..." He deadpanned, now looking kind of worried. He then coughed a little and cleared his throat as he looked off in a random direction to say something to himself. I couldn't understand it, but looked somewhat upset about it. But I'm sure that he'd be just fine. I mean it was only Harley that he had to go up against.

What's the worse that could happen to him?

* * *

**Ah, the dreaded phrase 'What's the worst that can happen?' Don't you just love that phrase in stories? Makes you want to hide in fear of the worst possible thing happening.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you in the next one! Goodbye everyone!**

**QotC: On a scale of 1-Doomed, just how bad is the phrase 'What's the worst that could happen?'**


	6. Maku 1 Speed!

**/\**

**\/**

**Max's POV**

"_So, who do you think will win?_" Kirlia asked as she stood beside me. Still standing on only her good leg.

"Not so sure." I wanted to say the teenager that ran in the way would win, but he said that Makuhita wasn't his Pokémon. Harley's Cacturne might've been weakened by Kirlia, but not too much. "It might just be even since Makuhita's got the type advantage."

"Oh yeah, I remember that..." We heard him mutter from his spot. We were standing off behind him in front of the crowd circling around the field. "Uh, hey, Mac right?" He turned around to look at us, looking a little worried.

"Max." I deadpanned.

"Sorry, Max. Is...Is it cheating if I try to get your help with this?" He looked back towards everything else as Harley was talking some sort of strategy with Cacturne and Makuhita was standing beside the Teenager.

"Well, if you're asking me and Kirlia to help you battle, then that would be cheating. But if you want any advice on taking down Cacturne, then some indirect help isn't too unfair. Besides, Harley's probably coming up with some way to cheat already."

"Great, so not only is he a freak in a costume, but he's also a cheat. Meaning if I lose, I'll be just as big a laughing stock as he is." He sighed and turned around. Muttering something about 'beginner's luck'. "Alright, so if I have a type advantage, then fighting-type moves are probably good...But, uh..." He turned to Makuhita. "What moves do you know again?"

"You don't know _one_ move that Makuhita can use?" I knew that it wasn't his Pokémon, but he had to know one move...Right?...

"Uh..." He paused and scratched the back of his head. Coughing a little to try and take some time to come up with something to say. "Well, actually, I do know one move he can use."

"Alright then, I think that we've had enough time to prepare!" The referee announced, making all attention turn back towards the battle. "Now this battle will be the same as before! A one on one battle with Harley and his Cacturne, versus...Uh...I'm sorry, I don't know your name."

"Alex. Alex Fletcher." He answered before focusing forward.

"Probably said his last name because of the cameras." I said just quiet enough for Kirlia to hear.

"_Kind of ironic for you to say that Max._" Kirlia then giggled telepathically to me. Making it sound like one of those horror movies. It was always really creepy, but at least you get used to it pretty quickly.

"Point taken..." I said with a sigh.

"Let the battle begin!" Meyer the Referee yelled out.

"Cacturne, use Bullet Seed!" Harley ordered, followed by Cacturne firing the attack towards Makuhita. Staying on his side of the stage of the field so Makuhita couldn't attack him.

"Quick, get out of the way!" Alex yelled out, looking immediately invested in the battle. Makuhita then nodded and successfully dodged the attack with surprising speed. The seeds only hitting vacant ground as Makuhita skidded to a halt a few feet off to the side. "Oh. Good job!"

"Maku-Maku!" Makuhita cheered, following up with a boxing stance and glaring towards the Cacturne.

"Oh if you think it'll be that easy, then you really haven't heard of me! Cacturne, don't give them any room to attack!" Cacturne proceeded to keep on attacking with Bullet Seed, only leaving time for Makuhita to keep dodging the attack instead of attacking himself.

"Keep on dodging, he has to run out of ammo sooner or later! Just get as close as you can!" Alex called out, hoping to try and outlast Cacturne.

"_He can't be serious right?_" Kirlia asked with a doubtful tone in her voice. "_I mean, it's not a bad plan, but it doesn't seem too possible for a Pokémon like Makuhita._"

"Maku!" He yelled out in approval of Alex's plan and went on to avoid the Bullet Seed. Jumping to the side, but also getting every foot closer to the Cacturne.

After the Bullet Seed missing even after Makuhita had now gotten halfway across the field, Harley gritted his teeth in annoyance. "Cacturne, aim for his feet!" Harley called out, sounding as agitated as he looked.

"Jump over it!" Alex called, really pushing the limits of what he thought Makuhita was capable of.

"Maku!" But rather spend even a second questioning Alex's idea, Makuhita jumped up into the air. Getting a few feet higher than he needed to dodge the stream of bullets. Luckily for him, Cacturne now had to stop his attack since it was about to run out of breath to do so.

As Makuhita landed in front of Cacturne, Alex physically lit up and smirked. "Now, use that Bullet Punch from earlier!"

"Bullet Punch?" That Makuhita knew Bullet Punch?

"Maku..." Immediately, Makuhita rushed at Cacturne with great speeds. His left fist turning into solid steel before he brought it forward and made contact with Cacturne's torso. "Hita!" He called out as he knocked Cacturne backwards. Forcing him to land on the ground directly in front of Harley.

"Woah!" The crowd started to cheer as Alex told Makuhita to get back. As he and his Pokémon smiled at their plan working, Harley and Cacturne quickly got up and glared at the two of them.

"You think you've won?!" Harley yelled out. "We've been going easy on you until now!"

"Yeah righ-" Alex cut himself off however as he coughed some more. This time looking a little pale. But after the coughing had passed, he shook his head and regained his frown. "That's what everyone says when they're too afraid to admit they're losing."

"_Max, I think something's wrong..."_ Kirlia carefully studied Alex as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and refocused on the battle. And as she tried to figure out what was going on, she spotted something very concerning. "_Max, look at his hand. Do you see what I see?"_

"His hand?..." I adjusted my eyes and tried to look at his hand to see what Kirlia was talking about. And although it could've just been a trick of the light, I could've sworn that the small saliva on the back of his hand temporarily had a purple-tint to it. "Is that..."

"We'll see about that! Cacturne, poison that Makuhita with Poison Sting!" Cacturne nodded and fired poison sting next. Alex told Makuhita to dodge, but he couldn't dodge all of them as a few struck Makuhita's side.

"Excuse me. Pardon me. Terribly sorry..." As the battle went on, someone had been trying to get through the crowd and finally stopped behind me and Kirlia. Not only that, but a second person had followed behind the first.

That one being Officer Jenny. "What's going on here? I heard that there was something going on at the base of Lumiose Gym."

"Hold on a second, is that Alex?" The first person, a man with a lab coat, questioned. "Well, I guess he found a battle of his own to try out his newfound lessons."

"Newfound lessons? What do you mean by that?" The officer turned to him with a confused look on her face. "I know that he looked a little new to taking care of Pokémon, but I would've thought someone like him would've been in a few battles of his own. At least in school."

"Wait a second, this is his first battle?!" I turned towards them with a worried look on my face. "That's why he was trying to ask if I was okay with him taking my place..."

"Taking your place? So he willingly went into a battle?" As he watched the battle as Alex kept trying to get Makuhita close to Cacturne. Makuhita was still dodging each attack with great speed and advancing closer towards Cacturne with each Pin Missile, Poison Sting, and Bullet Seed. But as he kept dodging, Makuhita was starting to slow down from exhaustion of constantly dodging without a chance to catch his breath.

Speaking of slowing down, Alex was starting to look out of breath as well. The original invested attitude he had before was now replaced with a tired and exhausted expression on his face. He coughed once more before refocusing on his battle. Still pale and his saliva looking purplish in appearance.

"Now as soon as you get close, knock him into air with the best fighting-type move you've got!" Alex commanded before coughing some more. Makuhita jumped over the stream of Pin Missile and stood directly in front of Cacturne. Pulling back his arm and aiming directly for Cacturne's chest.

"Cacturne, use Cotton Spore to-" Sadly, Harley couldn't finish his command as Makuhita used Arm-Thrust to uppercut Cacturne into the air. Makuhita then jumped up and used Arm-Thrust for a second succession. Sending Cacturne even higher into the air before he fell directly towards the ground. Doing nothing to try and cushion the fall like last time.

"Turne..." As it hit the ground, Cacturne's eyes turned into the ever familiar swirls instead. Showing that he was done with the battle.

"Cacturne is unable to battle!" The Referee announced. "The winner is Alex Fletcher and his Makuhita!"

"Maku!" Makuhita cheered out as he ran back over to Alex's side of the field. Looking like he was the happiest Pokémon in the world right about now. "Maku?! Mak, Makuhita!" He yelled to Alex. I guessed that he was thanking him for battling with him.

"Yeah...We won..." He started coughing again. But this time, he was looking off-balanced as he swayed from side to side unevenly.

"Alex, are you alright?" The man in the lab coat walked forward as everyone else started to calm down and looked at what was going on. Harley returned Cacturne to his Pokéball, and as the attention was going towards the winner of the battle, he decided to slip away before anyone could rub it in his face.

"_Max, I'm sure of it now!_" Kirlia told me. "_He's poisoned!_" She was able to read the emotions of everyone, but since people's emotions got weaker whenever they were tired or asleep, she could tell he was losing consciousness.

"Poisoned?!" I yelled out. Probably a bit louder than I should have.

"When did this happen?!" Officer Jenny asked as the man and Makuhita now tried to steady Alex to keep him from falling on his face. The cameras now had all their attention on Alex as the reporters started to tell everyone that was watching what they just heard.

"Before Alex battled with Harley! Alex ran out to keep Makuhita from getting hit by a Poison Sting and took the hit himself!" This was bad. We should've tried to get him out of here before the poison got so much worse!

"I'm...I'm fine professor..." Alex slowly pushed the man away as he stood up straight and tried to keep himself from coughing. "I just gotta...Lay down for a while is all...Like, right now for instance..." He immediately collapsed onto the ground. Meaning that if the poison didn't make him fall unconscious, the landing definitely did.

"Quick, Garchomp, help me get him back to the lab!" The man then sent out a Garchomp from its Pokéball, which picked up the unconscious Alex from the ground and ran off towards what I assumed was their lab with Officer Jenny, Makuhita, and the man following along.

"_Max, we should go too."_ Kirlia said as she took a step forward to follow. She winced in pain slightly, but thankfully her ankle was feeling a little better now. Still, I thought it better if I carried her along with me.

She was right though. It was probably best that we come along with them. After all, it was our battle to begin with. We couldn't just leave without saying something too him. I just hope that he wasn't too angry with us or anything.

* * *

**And I think that'll do it for this chapter. Sorry that it's smaller than the chapters I usually do. I just wanted to end it here so the chapter didn't look so confusing. Either way, I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you all next chapter! Bye everyone!**

**QotC: If you had to face Harley and his Cacturne with any Pokémon of your choice (When that Pokémon is at the lowest evolution) What Pokémon would it be? Also, do you think you'd win?**


	7. Battle Aftermath

**/\**

**\/**

**(2 Hours After Last Chapter)**

**Kirlia's POV**

"I'm telling you, for the last time, I won the battle! Why won't you believe me?!"

"Probably because you're not actually good enough to win any kind of battle!"

"Did you already forget that I beat you in our last competition?!" Makuhita asked with a glare.

As I sat off to the side, the young Happiny checking my ankle one last time, the Makuhita that had battled Cacturne earlier was in an argument with a Tyrogue that was here at the Professor's laboratory.

"Guys, I think I can help settle this." I interrupted as Happiny gave me 'permission' to walk around again. I guess she had her mind set on becoming a Chansey at a Pokémon Center one day. "Makuhita kicked Cacturne's butt."

"HA!" Makuhita cheered as he pointed at Tyrogue, who sighed in frustration. "I told you that I beat him! And it only took three Bullet Punches and an Arm-Thrust!"

"Oh, whatever Makuhita. Just remember that one fluke win doesn't mean anything." Tyrogue then turned around to head into the area with the trees in the bio-dome room we were in. "I'm going to go train."

"Tho_sssss_e two are alway_sssss_ fighting, aren't they? Shesh, what a couple of moron_sssss_." A male Seviper said with a shake of its head.

"Ugh, do you really have to talk?!" A female Zangoose asked with a glare. "Because it i_sssss_ _sssss_o annoying!"

"Well if you think it'_sssss_ annoying then go away! No one want_sssss_ you here anyway!" Seviper responded, not shying away from the Zangoose's glare.

"Ya know, I gotta hand it to that kid," A Geodude interrupted loudly, not wanting to hear them fight. Nearly all Geodudes sounded like ticked-off, strong, elderly Pokémon, and this one certainly wasn't an exception. Of course, he probably had a reason to sound the way he did since he was around seventy years old. Which was a teenager in Geodude years.

"He's pretty tough. Charmander said that he woke up and nearly fell off the roof...Huh. You know, that's gotta be the second time I heard of a kid jumpin' from off a buildin'. The first one bein' that kid with the Pikachu."

"Wait, a Pikachu?" I perked up at the name of that Pokémon. "Did you by any chance remember the name of that kid?"

"Nope. All's I remember 'bout him was he jumped off Prism Tower to save his Pikachu. Saw it on the TV while one of them researchers was performin' some a their check-ups with me. Not _one_ trace a fear on that kid's face. These days, most trainers are too scared to jump in a puddle for a Flabébé." He then shook his head at what he thought was a pitiful thought for trainers.

"No kidding. Remember last year when that kid was starting his journey? He kept sounding like he was in total control of everything." A Bidoof reminded the group. "Of course, he tried choosing Froakie, so that was his first mistake right there."

"Woah, hold on now Bidoof. Froakie wasn't the problem, that kid was a jerk!" Happiny defended. "At least, that's what Froakie told me."

"Of course that's what he said. He didn't want to sound like a jerk himself, so he probably made up a lie. Watch, he'll probably come back saying that trainer with the Pikachu was a jerk too." Bidoof tried to accuse. Not sounding too friendly regarding whatever a Froakie was.

"Well my trainer's not a push-over either. In fact, he is as great as his Gym Leader Father." I stood up and started walking towards the doors. "Speaking of Max, I think I need to try and tell him something. Hopefully I can get the message through to him."

"Good luck!" Happiny waved goodbye as I walked away, with the others going back to talking to one another. All except Makuhita, who immediately jumped up and ran after me. Catching up to me before I could even make it to the door.

"Can I come too?!" He asked. "I never got a chance to thank Alex for battling with me! Plus, I wanna know if he's okay. You know, because of what all happened to him." Makuhita explained, hoping that I would agree.

Honestly, I wish I could understand the feeling of your first battle. Nearly every Pokémon could remember their first battle. It doesn't matter if you had your first battle if you were young or full grown, the only important thing that mattered was how well you did. You didn't even have to win really, if it was a close battle than it was a close battle.

Sadly, my first battle just wasn't interesting at all. The other trainer, I think his name was Jo or something, had an extremely weak Rattata. And in just one Confusion attack it was down for the count. Max tried to be a good sport about it, saying that Rattata looked pretty intimidating and that was why we went all out, but I could tell with his emotions that he and his Pokémon were just as disappointed with the battle as I was.

"Uh, sure I guess that's alright." Almost immediately, his happiness sky-rocketed as he smiled wide. Very thankful that I agreed to take him there. And as we got to the doors, I used Psychic to open the doors.

Usually electronic doors, especially ones that are meant to be used with Pokémon in mind, are Psychic-Type proof. Having the same unique machinery as the inside of a Pokéball. So moves like Psychic, Teleport, or even a Ghost-Type's Intangibility wouldn't work. But luckily, these doors didn't have that type of mechanism and as soon as we got through, I closed the door behind us and we were off to find Max and Alex.

"Oh, I don't think any of us asked." Makuhita said, earning my attention as his emotion changed from happy to curious. "Are you and your trainer from the Kalos Region?"

"No, we're from the Hoenn Region. Since we had already taken on the Hoenn League, we came here to take on the Kalos League. And apparently, it sounds like a friend of ours is here too. So we're hoping to catch up to him so we can all take on the Kalos League together." I explained to him. He might not have known what a Pokémon League was, but since he didn't ask I didn't explain it.

"So, I'm guessing that you're from here in Kalos, right?" Seemed like a reasonable assumption for me to make anyway.

"Nope, I'm from Hoenn too." He answered with a content smile as we both started heading up the stairs. "I used to live there until four months ago when I was brought here. When I was young, my Dad said it was probably best I go off on my own adventure so I could train more. I got a bunch of stories from that, but, uh, they're probably not that fun. But one day, this human found me and asked if I wanted to come with him. So I did." He summarized.

"Seems to me that there's more to that story than you're letting on." I pointed out. His emotions were fluctuating a bit, which meant that he was very undetermined about what he was trying to think. His emotions ranged from happy, to unsure, to sad, and everything in between. It was almost enough to make me ask about the story even more.

"Not really. It's all just boring stuff." He shrugged and shook his head. Now focusing on the doors we were passing by. And once again, his emotions said different. Obviously there was more to this, but I couldn't tell if he was trying to bait me into asking about his life story or just didn't feel like talking about it. Either way, I left it alone.

"By the way," He started, changing the subject on purpose. "How's come you told everyone back in the Forest Room that you need to 'try and tell him something'? I thought you could talk to trainers with your mind."

"Well yes, but I don't want every Pokémon knowing that. If they found out I could translate for humans, then they'd treat me like a Spirit Medium and ask me to translate." Makuhita already knew that I could communicate to humans, so what was the point?

"Oh, I get it. Still, I wish all humans could understand us. It'd make things a lot easier." He mused.

"I know. Hopefully, they'll invent the technology in time." I agreed. Only thing is that with translators, that might mean that we have to wear some sort of collar or something. Not something many Pokémon would look forward to. "Here's the room I last saw Max in. Hopefully they're all still in here."

* * *

**Alex's POV**

"So, all the poison's gone right?" I asked the Professor. After having passed out after that battle, I had woken up back at the lab in the Guest Room. One of the assistants said that I was free to get up and walk around whenever I wanted, but it was just so weird. I mean, if you were bit by a snake or something, it wouldn't just go away after you passed out. So you can't really blame me for being worried about this kind of thing.

"Yes." Sycamore nodded. "An average Pokémon's poison will subside the instant the victim falls unconscious. But the poison also eats at your immune system temporarily. So it was important that we get you inside to recover."

"Alright, well if it's all gone then I guess I won't...Wait. Hold on. The Average Pokémon's Poison?" I repeated, thinking that over carefully. "What about the Pokémon who's not 'average'?"

"Well..." He hummed in thought as his eyes darted around the room. Hoping to find something else to turn our attention towards. And I wasn't a fool, I knew that if he was trying to bide his time, then that meant that it was bad news.

"You know what, I don't wanna know." I told him, waving the question away. I could put two and two together on my own.

"_Maku-Maku!_" A random voice had called out cheerfully. And looking towards the doorway where I heard the sound, I saw two Pokémon at the doorway. One being that Pokémon that was with Max before I got in the way and ended up battling Mr. Thorn Man. And other one was the Pokémon that I battled said thorn in everyone's side-

"Hey!" I said, instantly going from worried to cheerful. "How's it going?!"

"Maku! Ma-Makuhita! Hita-Mak-Maku!" He said, repeating parts of his name over and over again. I could tell that he was happy about something, and with the fighting pose he made, I guessed that he was talking about fighting or something.

"Um..." I hummed to myself quietly, not sure what to say. I mean, what was I supposed to say to that? _I'm sorry Makuhita, I have no idea what you're trying to tell me_. With how happy he was acting, I didn't want to make him upset or anything.

So keeping that in mind, I gave up and took a wild guess. "Are you trying to talk about the battle earlier?" To answer my question, he gave a nod in approval.

"Makuhita." He then gave me a small bow as if to...

"Wait a second, are you...Trying to thank me?" I took another shot in the dark.

"Ma-ku!" He nodded with a smile.

"..." I sat silently in thought. "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but...Why?" I asked, trying to stay cautious. Still, it actually was confusing me. I mean, why was this Pokémon trying to thank me for making him go through a battle where he almost got poisoned like I did?

"Ma, Makuhita!" He answered, again leaving me stumped.

"Allow me to translate." The Professor began with a smile. "You see Alex, whether in the wild or with a trainer, Pokémon battle to grow and become stronger. And as far as I know, the battle you and Makuhita had was his very first. As well as your first battle."

"Maku?" Makuhita asked me with a confused look.

"Yeah, this was my first battle too." I told him with a nod. _Huh...Guess Pokémon are easier to understand than I thought._

"But what makes this even more important to him is that Makuhita's put training in high regard." Professor Sycamore explained. "Not to mention his Way of the Fist."

"Oh yeah, I remember that. You used that punch move to take down that guy's Pokémon." I looked back up towards Sycamore. "And you said that he's trying to learn all of them, right?"

"Yes. So far, all he knows is Bullet Punch and Pound, along with his Arm-Thrust move as well." Sycamore said, immediately getting an idea in his mind as he stayed silent a little longer.

"Man, and you didn't even need all three moves to kick that Cacturne's butt." I told Makuhita, smiling at how easy it was to actually teach that freak and his Pokémon a lesson.

"Maku-maku-maku-maku..." He chuckled in agreement.

Sycamore than chuckled himself before adding in his own thoughts. "It seems as if you two have become fast friends."

"Huh?" I stopped thinking about the battle and turned towards Sycamore. "Fast friends?" Both me and Makuhita looked towards each other. "You think so?"

"Yes. The bond between a human and a Pokémon is something I've come to see almost everyday." He thought for a few more seconds before finally coming to a conclusion. "Alex?"

"Yeah?" By this point, he had both our attentions.

"How about you take Makuhita with you on your journey? You do still need a Pokémon to travel with you after all."

"..."

_Take Makuhita on 'My Journey'? It all comes back to that, doesn't it? No matter what I say, it'll always come to that. I know it's not something I can avoid, but...What about everything else?_

_What about getting back home? To my world, my town, my own family?...I can't be mad at anyone. No matter how I look at it, there's no one to blame. Heck, people are going out of their own way to help me get back to where I belong! No matter how imp-_

_..._

_...Is it impossible?..._

_..._

_...Am I stuck here?..._

_..._

_...Will I ever see anyone ever again? School, friends, family, anyone in my country or even world ever again?_

_I'm frowning right now aren't I?_

"Alex? Are you okay?" Sycamore asked. I focused towards him, only to realize that my vision was cloudy from some tears that had been building up.

Sycamore, and maybe Garchomp, were the only ones in this room that knew. That other kid, Max I think, was on a video chat with someone else with his Pokémon, and Makuhita was right beside me. I couldn't let any of them know about it. I'd just have to keep quiet until some news came up. After all, those other two Professors said that they'd be doing some research.

"Ahe...Course I am." I said, wiping the tears out of my eyes before putting on a brave face. Thankfully able to talk as if I wasn't sad to begin with. "Probably that stupid poison again. I'm fine."

I then turned to Makuhita. "So what do you think? Would you want to come?" Pokémon were sentient as far as I could tell. And as I saw it, this was more his choice than mine. I mean, if he were to be 'my' Pokémon, then it should ultimately be his decision, right?

"Maku...?" He said with a slightly surprised expression. Caught off guard that I had asked him. But as soon as he had understood what was going on, he spent no time at all agreeing happily. This being made obvious as he jumped up and hugged me with joy. "Makuhita!" He yelled out.

"Ack!" I managed to utter in surprise as the Pokémon kept hugging me. Nearly chocking me with the amount of strength he was putting into the hug. "Okay, okay, I'll take that as a yes!"

"Huh? Is someone else there with you?" Some girl's voice asked. Soon enough, Makuhita, thankfully, ended his bone crushing hug and I instinctively looked towards the door. Thinking that whoever asked that question came from the entrance into the room.

Except, no one else came in.

"Who was that?" I asked, towards no one in particular, before turning towards that Max's Pokémon. _When she talked to me, I know it was a female voice. Did she say something just now?_

"Huh? Oh yeah, that guy that battled Harley's in here right now." Max told the video phone. I guess the volume was louder than I thought or something.

"Wait, _what?!_" That same voice called out worriedly. Nearly driving us all deaf. "You didn't tell me that! How much did he hear?!"

"Well with how loud you're yelling, I'm thinking he hears you right now." He deadpanned before turning towards me. After thinking it over for a few seconds, he suddenly smirked slyly. But it wasn't just any sly smirk, it was that 'I'm about to embarrass my sibling' kind of sly smirk.

I know that smirk well, because I always smirked like that myself. My little brother always tried to do some underhanded trick to look better than me. So I made sure to return the favor.

_Ah, sibling rivalry. One of the most entertaining rivalries to watch._

_Still, what did I have to do with anything about that?_

"Hey, uh, Alex right?" He asked, quickly changing back to a normal smile. _Initiate Operation: Sibling Embarrasser!_ I could almost see that title floating above his head.

"Yeah. What do you need?" I asked, not sure whether to walk over or stay still.

"Can you come over here for a minute? I want to introduce you to my sister." Max told me with a friendly voice. _And suddenly it all makes sense. Still, how would introducing me to his sister make her embarrassed?_

"Uh, sure, okay." I said, not able to think of a reason as to why and say no. And upon reaching the video chat machine- You know what, I'll just call this thing a phone. It's getting frustrating calling this thing just a 'machine'. It makes me feel like a caveman. So upon reaching the _phone_, Max turned towards his sister. "Hey May, how about you say hi to Alex yourself?"

"What? _No!_ I-I don't want to talk to him right- Oh hey Alex!" She immediately changed her tone after she saw me walking into view of the camera. And after looking at her, I saw that Max's sister was probably a little older than he was. Or at the very least, taller than he was.

She had brown hair that stuck out from underneath a silver and white handkerchief that she had tied around like a hat. It had some kind of pattern with the white color, but tied the way it was, I couldn't make out what the pattern was.

She also had a sleeveless silver top as well, and gloves on as well. And her face looked pretty similar to Max's as far as I could tell, which was obvious considering that they were brother and sister. Except something that was different was that while Max had black eyes, hers were blue. Not only that, but her cheeks were a little red for some reason. Probably make-up or something.

"Uh, hi...May, right?" I tried, hoping that I hadn't have messed up her name already. I always seemed to forget peoples names nearly seconds after they tell me. Some random names stuck if they were interesting, easy to remember, o just reminded me of something else.

Max and Professor Juniper's names were easy to remember. Max's because it was just so common it was almost impossible to forget. And Juniper's...Well...I don't really know. For some reason, whenever I thought about her name, a video game called 'Skyrim' kept popping into my mind.

"Y-Yeah, that's my name..." She said awkwardly. I guessed that she was shy. And apparently it was funny enough to Max as he just sat back in his chair, smirking in victory. "So, uh, you battled Harley right? I saw what happened with that Poison Sting." She said, now going from shy to enraged.

"Yeah, that wasn't exactly fun." I deadpanned. "But at least Cactus Boy got what was coming to him." They both then busted out laughing. But quickly, May was able to calm down well enough to talk again.

"Anyway, thank you for helping Max and Kirlia. Knowing Cactus Boy, he wouldn't have cared about Kirlia's twisted ankle." May said with a frown, happily using my insult for his name.

"Well, it was only fair that...Wait. What did you say?" I asked, mishearing something about what she said.

"He didn't care about Kirlia's twisted ankle?" May repeated, unsure if that's what I wanted her to repeat or not.

"..." With my mouth slightly hanging open, I turned towards Max and Kirlia. "...You guys are kidding, right?"

Max and Kirlia slowly shook their heads no, as did May when I turned to face her again.

"Wow...I didn't know that part..." I said slowly, completely surprised by just how rude that sounded. "That freak had cameras set up and everything, and he didn't even care that it wasn't a fair fight?"

"Nope." "Nu-uh." Max and May answered respectively. Acting as if this was a common thing. Which it _shouldn't_ be!

"Seriously?! What kind of half-baked man dressed in algae would do something like that?!" I asked, completely ticked off at that guy.

_To quote the song from How the Grinch Stole Christmas; ~You're as cuddly as a cactus, you're as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch.~_

"Hardly Harley." May said with a nod. Earning a snicker from me.

"Hey May," Max started, wanting to change the subject. "Wasn't their something you wanted to say to Alex?"

"Huh?" May looked confused, but upon seeing the smirk Max had on his face, she instantly turned a little red again. "Oh! Uh. Well..." She only got redder and redder as she started avoiding looking at me altogether.

"What's wrong?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. No way was she shy this time. And I doubt it suddenly got cold that fast in there. So what was going with her?

"Well-You see-The thing is..." She kept stuttering for a few more seconds before finally stopping and putting the faintest of sly smirks on her face. And once again, it wasn't just any sly smirk, it was that 'I'm about to get back at my sibling' kind of sly smirk.

That was another kind of smirk that I knew very well. And for some reason, I felt like it had to do with me...It does, doesn't it?

"Oh right, that thing." She said coolly, her redness fading away. "You see Alex, Max wanted to know if you wanted to travel along with him."

"Wait, what?" Max asked, suddenly caught off-guard.

"Yeah, don't you remember Max?" May asked with as much innocence as she could possibly put into her voice and expression. "You wanted to ask me what I thought since I was going to come to the Kalos region to visit you anyway!"

At this point, I wasn't too sure what to say right now. I mean, I knew that she was really just trying to mess with her younger brother, but I didn't know if I could really say anything to help here.

You're coming to visit?" Max asked, again _very_ confused as to what May was saying.

"Of _course_ I'm coming to visit you! And now that you're inviting Alex to come with you, I can thank him in person for saving my kid brother! Oh! I mean, _you are_ going to ask him to come, aren't you?!" She asked with a devious smile aimed right at him.

_Oh, I see how this is going now._ I smirked mentally before turning to look at Max, looking at him with a slightly confused look. Acting like I had no idea what May was getting at. Older sibling had to stick together, right?

Kirlia saw through my façade, however, and talked to me telepathically. "_You're playing along, aren't you?"_ She asked me. And not wanting to give it away, I just blinked twice to signal to her that I was and she simply giggled silently so Max wouldn't notice.

"_Well now that you brought it up..._" Max said through his gritted teeth. Angry that the tables had officially turned. Something I couldn't help but smirk at in appreciation. "So Alex, would you want to come along?"

"Huh?" _Okay, that was unexpected._ "Wait, you're serious?"

"Yep." "Uh-huh." Max and May said respectively. _You know, the words 'deja vu' seems to come to mind right now..._

"Wait, you mean for real? You actually want me to come along with you?" I repeated, still caught off-guard. Don't get me wrong, with how nonchalant everyone acts with kids walking around in the wild with a bunch of wild, fire-spitting, dragon-growling, random-colored Pokémon, it didn't exactly seem out of leftfield for kids to travel along together to make the trip just that much safer. Seriously, there was probably some kind of unspoken honor system or something around here.

But I literally just met this kid today, and already he's fine with me traveling around with him? Is everyone this trusting?

"Sure. I mean the Professor did say that you were beginning your journey today as well. So why not? We can travel together and then face each other in the Pokémon League." He said with a smile.

"_Sycamore_..." I muttered almost silently.

"Hey May! Are Pokémon are all ready to go!" A second female voice called out from out of view of May's side of the phone.

"Got it, I'm coming!" May announced with a smile. "Sorry Max, I gotta go! The first contest is in three days, and we have a long trip ahead of us before we reach Striation City! Not only that, but we got a reservation at this amazing restaurant there!"

"Of course you did May." Max deadpanned, not at all surprised. "So how high-class is it?" He asked with a smile.

"Very funny Max." May pouted. "And for your information, I didn't make the reservation. Dawn did. Apparently she knows one of the three people that work there. Anyway, good luck in Kalos! Bye Max! Bye Alex!" She then clicked a button that was off-screen and the phone call ended.

"Well, guess she's off to win the Unova Grand Festival." Max said with a smile. "So what do ya say Alex?" He asked as he turned towards me. "Want to go on an adventure with me and Kirlia?"

"..." I thought it over as quickly as I could, trying to think it all over. On one hand, I wouldn't be off alone wandering the wild with Pokémon that I knew nothing about with a Makuhita by my side. Not only that, but Max definitely wasn't trying anything underhanded. Plus he apparently new a bunch of stuff about Pokémon already. So I wouldn't be so clueless if I came across a problem I needed to deal with.

On the other hand, I still had my own problems to try and conclude. There's no way I can tell him upfront that I'm from another 'world' or something. And if he eventually found out that I _was_ hiding that kind of secret from him, then it'd be just as bad if not worse. And let's not forget that he had a Pokémon that talks to you through brain waves.

Besides, what if in the middle of the entire adventure, I find out how to get home? Then I'd end up just leaving him to have to journey around by himself. And as much as I wanted to get back home to my family, I couldn't just abandon a kid that was even younger than I was.

But there was one other problem? How exactly could I say no? I mean, he and his older sister were already expecting me to say 'yes' so if I ended up declining they'd either be upset or confused. Not only that, but even the Professor was expecting me to agree. Which I can't really blame him for, seeing as having a friend in this messed up world is best in hindsight.

So putting all this together, I made my decision and gave him a smile and nodded. "Sure man. That sounds like a great idea." I said, keeping my smile as I turned to Makuhita. "What do you think?" I asked him.

"Ma-ku!" Makuhita nodded in agreement.

"Yes!" Max said excitedly, getting out of his seat. "So, do you think you're ready to go?!" He asked.

"R-Right now?" I asked, caught off-guard by that. "I mean, do you know where we'd be going first?" I asked, a little skeptical. I saw a map or two earlier today, but none of them pointed out any of these 'gyms' that the Professor told me about.

"Oh, right..." Max said, slowly losing that excitement that he suddenly built up. "I forgot about that..." He admitted with a foolhardy smile. Which just caused me sigh as a result.

_Some way to start an adventure..._

* * *

**And so begins the adventure of Max and Alex! Glad I could finally get this chapter up, even after everything happening right now. Hope you all liked the chapter, and I will see you all next chapter! Goodbye everyone!**

**QotC: Since I can't exactly think of a question that relates to this chapter, how about this. A Pokémon Mystery Dungeon question! So if you were to be turned into a Pokémon, (And it can't be Legendary or a Pokémon at the highest evolution) which one would it be?**


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